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Good lord. That story really disappoints me, particularly since Foot Solutions lauds that location of theirs.

As for your lesser toe deformities, that probably has less to do with your SAS shoes, and more to do with your history of PTTD and collapsing medial arch. When the medial column fails, the lesser toes are forced to compensate by clawing. Maintaining sole integrity, secure mid and rearfoot fit, and a solid heel counter should all help reduce the problem, in conjunction with your inserts. You may also want to discuss with your doctor a custom made insert that has a deeper heel cup than what you presently wear.

As for shoes, there are various brands and models that possess characteristics you describe. The easiest to find are New Balance shoes built on their SL-2 last (811, 577, 883, etc). Others in which I commonly have success are the 'E' lasted shoes from Kumfs, contour lasted shoes from PW Minor, the Blazer from Drew. You can also consider most of the trail category shoes from Garmont.

Please keep in mind that most quality, supportive shoes are also going to have a fairly firm sole when brand new. Until you finalize the sole's flex position, there will very likely be some amount of initial heel slippage. I encourage you NOT to discard a new shoe that matches your midfoot and forefoot well simply because it's not tightly gripping your heel at first.

Jeremy, I value your advice on shoes. You are so knowledgeable. I wish you were located in S. Calif. so I could buy shoes from you.

Thank you for your time.

Result number: 3

Message Number 260407

Re: A question for JeremyView ThreadPosted by Jeremy L, C Ped on 9/07/09 at 21:04

Although it's a well made shoe, I believe there are models from other brands that do a better job mimicking what works well with your present shoes. The Aravon last is very combination shaped, and likely not broad enough in the shank. The Ursula from Kumfs is a shoe that will likely work exceptionally well. The Allison and Excite from Drew are also worth consideration. I suggest avoiding the new Z-strap Mary Jane model from PW Minor, as this new last often has fit problems.

Result number: 4Searching file 25

Message Number 259561

Re: Government Option in Health CareView ThreadPosted by john h on 8/10/09 at 15:22

Perhaps you are right Marie. There may not be enough Democrats at risk. Any politician regardless of his affiliation has got to take notice of the very real outrage or worry being expressed by Americans. Polls continue to show most Americans are against a public plan by a strong majority. Politicians are supposed to represent their constituents regardless of whether their votes are in line with a President or not. Of course this does not always happen but in the long run if they continue to go against the wishes of their constituents it will catch up with them. Why all the panic to make such a monstrous change in so short a time? This should be thought through very carefully. Unintended consequences have a way of showing up on even small plans much less a plan to overhaul a 1/6th of our total economy. Why, please tell me, we do not try what ever emerges in several states before we jump straight into this. States are better suited in my opinion to run a healthcare system that the federal government. All states have different needs and different problems. Many of the talking heads say that a plan without a public option is no real big problem for Obama. It is the left wing liberals that would give Obama a lot of heat over this.

Other News: In the upcoming census, illegal aliens will be counted, as reported in todays Wall Street Journal. This will give California and several other border states a big increase in representatives. As I recall it may be 20 or more for California. NY, Michigan, and a few other northern states would lose a representative. This is not the way the our founders originally wrote the laws for a census. It stated that 'inhabitants' were to be counted. When you looked at the dictionary for this word it clearly required that you be a citizen of that state.

Helicopters & Fixed Wing Aircraft: Having flown both for many thousands of hours as a pilot I will assure you that a helicopter is much more dangerous to fly than a fixed wing aircraft. When the engine quits they drop much like a rock. Just a chunk out of the tail rotor will lead to a catastrophic crash as the tail rotor will become unbalanced and give way. This will cause the helicopter to immediately go into a spin that increases with each turn and the pilot will have no control over where the helicopter goes. A fixed wing aircraft is inherently stable. you can let go of the controls and it might fly for many miles. You let go of the controls in a helicopter and you will go into an immediate position you do not want to be in. We lost 6000 in the Vietnam war. Having said that it appears from reports and pictures the fixed wing aircraft ran into the helicopter from behind . This should be an easy one for the investigators with all the picutres made by tourist and from carmeras along the river. I was involved when a heavy F-105 jet ran though an Army helicopter. All hands lost on helicopter and the jet continued on to land.

The House approval to purchase new Gulfstream jets for travel and military use in-spite of the Pentagon stating they did not need them. Cost around $600 million dollars. These are what we usually call corporate jets and were what the Congress raked the CEO's of the auto companies for using to come to meeting with Congress. August is the high activity time for Congressmen to schedule these trips for anywhere in the world. They can an do take their wives on these trips at no cost. For four years I flew a weekly scheduled flight from Andrews AFB just outside of Washington on a flight to London-Pairis-Franfurt. Our aircraft carried 2-3 flight attendants, a galley, 3 pilots, navigator, and engineer. The aircraft were fitted out to carry around 65 passengers although the civilian version carried 106. They were luxury. Our primary passengers were Congressmen and high ranking civilians in government. When we returned we did not have to go through customs. These people brought back everything you can think of. We would have large pieces of audio and hi if equipment that would occupy two seats. We would have enough Beef Eater Gin and high priced booze to open a bar. Law allowed each person to bring back 4 quarts of booze but if you have no customs inspectors you can bring back anything you load on to the aircraft. Listening to many conversations about the good times they had you had to wonder just what important business was done on behalf of the public. At that time we had a high profile columnist named Drew Pearson working for one of the Washington Newspapers. He got wind of these flights and our decked out aircraft and wrote a scathing national editorial. Nothing really changed. When we would land back at Andrews we would have all the limos pull up and off they went with their booty. For me as a pilot it was a fun flight as we always got priority treatment wherever we landed. The passengers liked to come to the __pit and talk so I got to meet a lot of our VIP's. Things apparently have not changed very much only faster better jets. Some Senators are talking about killing this bill as it is getting a lot of publicity. Our tax money is treated like monopoly money in Congress.

Something the President and Congress did right: Increased funding and number of Preditor drones. These unmanned aircraft are really doing a job and are the most feared thing we have according to captured terrorist. Wonder how many Preditors we could buy for $560 million scheduled for the luxury Gulfstream aircraft the Pentegon did not want?

My bad guy from the House for the decade: Represenative Barney Frank. I have eliminated those that were put in jail.

My knee problems started about 20 years ago. I have had pt, taping and knee braces several times over the years. After the realignment surgery, I went through both land based and water based pt. I have also had orthotics, made by a good pedorthist....not a chain store pedorthist. Both my ACL and MCl are suprisingly intact. I have accessory naviculars in both feet which made shoe selection kind of difficult when I was younger. Three years ago I experienced plantar fasciitis symptoms, pronation became progressively more evident and a few months ago the accessory navicular became very irritated by shoes that I had been able to wear (P.W. Minor, Drew) for the past three years. I kind of wonder if these two conditions are related in some way. I am healthy except for being an orthopedic mine field

Nearly ALL Drew shoes (and all other orthopedic brands, for that matter) have rocker bottom soles. One key difference among them is the amount of rockering provided. What's more valid is the variety of last shapes that all those shoes are built upon. One of two may fit and work well; it's just as likely that none of them will. None of the Drews come anywhere close to the amount of rochering that the Allegria's provide, so I don't have sufficient information to provide a suggestion.

Result number: 7

Message Number 258109

Re: Shoe recommendation for ball of foot bursitis??View ThreadPosted by LaurieY on 6/13/09 at 07:15

Jeremy, would you recommend the Drew Bounce, Airee, Nicole or Alexis for my condition? The descriptions I've read suggest they have rocker bottoms.

Drew a distinction should be made between a true Leg Length Difference (LLD) and a Functional Leg Length Difference (FnLLD) [or what many chiropractors call a Leg Length Inequality (LLI)]. A true LLD is rare and usually results from a congenital defect, osteonecrosis of the femoral head, trauma or surgery. Most apparent leg length difference is a compensation to muscular involvement, lumbosacral and hemipelvis alignment (often scoliosis) and some are believed to be as a result of alterations of gait.

I never apply a lift unless I can document a true LLD or I can reasonably infer that it is related to a person low back symptoms. Lifts affect the spine and must be approached with care. I do use temporary bilateral lifts for some foot conditions. A 1/4' difference is readily adapted by the body in my experience and rarely requires a lift.

If your chiropractor is suggesting using a 1/4' lift for what she claims is a 1/4' difference, based in that alone I would urge you to seek a podiatrist or pedorthist to cast you for orthoses. Chiropractic training in orthoses is typically non-existent unfortunately.

That said the only way to adequately document a true LLD is with radiographic measurement via slit scanography.

Casting for orthoses is an art into itself. I know practitioners who do a great job with foam but it is not the standard and is more useful for accommodative devices such as those for diabetic footbeds. There are also problems with the foam providing a force against forefoot creating alteration of the forefoot in the cast.

How are you doing with the Graston treatments? I assume that you have PF?

I've been suffering from plantar fasciitis for about 3 years now and I'm only 26 years old. The condition was most likely brought on because I have pronated feet. My feet are not rocker-bottom flat, but my arches are definitely lower than normal.

I have been seeing a CHIROPRACTOR for GRASTON TECHNIQUE therapy for awhile now. The chiropractor also fitted me for Comfortfit orthotics, which seem alright and are fairly inexpensive ($175). Before I get another pair I would like to know if they are a waste of money. The casting is done by placing my foot in some kind of blue foam called Econofoam. It is claimed that this process produces a custom fitted orthotic.

The reason I'm apprehensive about getting another pair is that the chiropractor suggested I get a heel lift because my right leg is slightly shorter than the left leg. The chiropractor's technique for measuring leg length discrepancy didn't seem to be precise, and I'm not sure I feel comfortable allowing the chiropractor to make such a determination. She said my right leg was about 1/4 of an inch shorter than the left (based on her method).

Are Comfortfit orthotics a viable alternative to a podiatrist charging me $500 for a custom pair? Should I just shell out the cash to a podiatrist and have a better chance of relief? I'm willing to do anything at this point, but I need to make informed decisions about what to spend my money on.

Under those conditions I actually find greater success with shoes like Brooks' Dyad and Ariel. They are both built on the same last, but different platforms. The selection of which shoe is dependent on how corrective the orthotic is, relevant to your feet. Because of this I suggest you seek the help of someone who can provide first-hand assessment of your feet to ensure you are getting the best match to your specific needs. I might be cautious about the Brooks Addiction Walker. It again is built on the same last, but is an extremely rigid shoe and is not always well tolerated by those with a history of TTS.

Other potential options include shoes in the Catalina Collection from Klogs, especially the Back Bay. It's a little heavier than the other shoes I suggested, but the Motion or Surge from Drew can be valid options, and are ridiculously durable. The Cambridge Collection from Dansko may also be beneficial for you.

Result number: 11

Message Number 257186

Re: Sandals for orthoticsView ThreadPosted by Jennifer L on 4/28/09 at 09:39

Drew also makes several sandals with removeable footbeds for orthotics. Not sure if the pedorthists on this board would recommend them as a quality brand, but they are an option! :)

Also, my podiatrist said some people stick some velcro or something to the orthotic to attach it to sandals. I haven't tried that myself...

I like the cushioning and fit but was looking for something with straps that were a bit thinner and less clunky. What are some of the models from Kumfs, Sofft and Born that would be similar to Katy?

I have had success with Drew Central Park when worn with my orthotics and Brooks Ariel and Katy without orthotics. The arch in Fin is not comfortable for me.

Is Drew Sahara something that may be worth my time?

Thanks for your help

Result number: 15

Message Number 256083

Fast Voting on the Stimulus BillView ThreadPosted by john h on 3/19/09 at 10:57

As we all remember the STimulus bill was rushed through when nearly none of the Senators had even read it prior to the vote. Yesterday Senator Shelby said he was told that when the vote took place the staff had not even finished writing the bill. Was it really necessary to rush this bill through in one day? I see no evidence that it has done any good. I do see evidence that it has done some bad. Had one read it they might have seen the approval of the bonuses concocted by a yet unnamed source.

We are going to end up spending more money on legal fees trying to recover the 160 million dollars than the 160 mill itself.

The public often grabs hold of things and it becomes cause. Eventually the cause becomes larger than it should be and stays on the tube week after week. Things like the Octo-Mom, O.J. Trial, various murders or kidnappings. One really never knows what the public will make a big case out of. But when they do make a case the TV people are happy to oblige. Congressmen often like to weigh in on TV on very trivial matters as far as the big scheme of things go. The bonus money is the cause of the day now but it is starting to turn around on the politicians as it turns out they knew and approved the bonus plan many months before. Timothy Geithner drew up the bailout plan for AIG. If he knew then it is likely the President knew. The Fed sat in on all AIG Board Meetings so they had to know and if they did not report it to Geithner they should have. I think it is very likely that none of them could see this would turn out to be something the public and press could really fire up the people. They were wrong and now trying to distance themselves from the problem. In the big scheme of things 160 million is not very much considering AIG has 1.6 trillion dollars at risk. The Congress needs to stay focused on the problem that could unravel AIG altogether. I posted once before we are swatting at mosquitoes while the Tiger is carrying us away.

Senator Dodd is up for reelection in 2010 against a tough opponent. This could very well sink his ship with the double speak he was caught in yesterday. I conclude that Congess often creates more problems than it solves. If I was he CEO of AIG I might have considered standing up and telling the obnoxious committee members 'I resign'. Take your $1 and shove it. Obviously this man is a real Patriot. I would prefer to fly a combat mission over North Vietnam than go what he went through yesterday. Secretary Geithner is on the hot seat with many and he just might not survive all this. Especially if they start holding hearings on who knew what and when did they know it concerning the bonus money. The Democrat would like beat that back. The people may not know all the facts but they are not stupid. Eventually they will figure this out. The congress has much bigger problems than the AIG bounus money. It is important that this compan survive. More so than most people know. More so than GM or Ford or Chrysler. Geither is knee deep in this as he is responsible for the AIG bailout plan.

What is your opinion of Drew -Tori? I have had good luck with Kathy-aravon - without orthotics PW Minor Central Park - with orthoticsand Brooks ariel

Thanks

Result number: 18

Message Number 255885

why didn't you complain when Hastert took twice.......View ThreadPosted by marie:) on 3/13/09 at 16:35

maybe 3 times the amount of flights as Pelosi. sounds like the typical Republican double do ya ta da extravaganza. Strawmen are alive and well in the Republican ta da la te de Party!

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=7057198&page=1In fact, it appears that Pelosi uses military aircraft less often than her predecessor, former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert.

The documents cover the period from January 2007 to November 2008 and show that Pelosi made the equivalent of 20 round-trips between Washington (Andrews Air Force Base) and San Francisco. That's an average of less than one round-trip per month. In contrast, former Speaker Hastert traveled home to his Illinois district virtually every weekend and, his former aides tell ABC News, he would almost always travel on military aircraft. Like Hastert, Pelosi also occasionally leads Congressional delegations on foreign trips (the documents show six foreign trips: one to Asia, three to the Middle East and two to Europe).

George Bush became the first President to allow the Speaker of the House to use Air Force Jets for travel. The use of military jets is about the most expensive mode of travel there is. It would be cheaper to charter a jet but better yet to travel first class on an airline. The question arises at what level in the chain of command do you allow elected officials to travel by military jet? It is the most expensive mode of travel and in this day and age it seems we should revert to what had always been done prior to George Bush allowing Dennis Hassert to use military aircraft. For four years I flew Cabinet Members and other high ranking Generals to Europe out of Washington. At that time we had 4 flight attendants, 3 pilots, 2 navigators, and an engineer on each aircraft. An aircraft that would normally seat over 100 people was modified to carry around 40. We cooked meals on board and the passengers traveled in luxury. As a pilot I thought it was great as I was always given fast service when refueling and our destinations were usually London, Paris, and Frankfurt. A national reporter, Drew Pearson, somehow got wind of these flights and got on board one of the aircraft. He wrote a scathing article about the luxury flights in one of the Washington papers. On our flights back from Europe the normally very thorough Customs Agents looked at hardly anything and the goodies these people brought back were not checked by customs. The customs checks were on the aircraft. They did load up on goodies some of them big enough to take up space big enough for two passengers.

Nancy Polosi's office refused to release how many flights she took on military aircraft last year and her staff would make no comment. A request under the Freedom of Infomation Act has been submitted. Our elected officials to often feel they are entitled after a few years in office. President Obama should reign in such junkets as should of President Bush. We crow about the fat cats on Wall Street when we have our own version of fat cats running the country.

Russia's nervousness about having the defensive missiles so close to their borders is understandable (I wonder if we could dust off the old Jupiter missiles we withdrew from Turkey in 1962?) but they engaged in blatant nuclear proliferation by aiding Iran's nuclear program, selling missile parts to Iran and SAMs.

The issues are thus linked. The problem is that the Iran genie cannot be placed back in the bottle. Russia would need to halt uranium shipments to Iran, stops selling Iran SAM systems and other advanced weapon systems.

Russia additionally, is acting more and more like the old Soviet Union in foreign affairs. They still are aiding the same Soviet satellite countries. They are not helping us in Iraq or Afghanistan, although they could be creating more mischief.

North Korea has been the main nuclear technology proliferator, providing such technology to Pakistan, Syria and Iran. A number of the indigenous Iranian missiles are based on North Korean designs.

How and from whom did North Korea obtain the nuclear technology in the first place?

Ed

Result number: 21

Message Number 255070

Re: Shoes with good arch supportView ThreadPosted by Janelle B on 2/13/09 at 19:06

Hi,

I have not received the shoes yet, but am anxious to get them. I was looking for a dressing heeled shoe that I could wear with a dress. I found the Mia/Avaron (made by New Balance) It looks like it is comfortable, podiatrist recommended, and finally a very cute looking shoe. (It actually has a rounded toe to boot!) I don't like pointed toes on shoes. Only Space aliens have feet shaped like a point.

I will be charged $149.99 but there is no shipping cost involved. To some this may seem a bit expensive for shoes. Yet, I have found one gets what they pay for in the long run. I don't have to dress up that often but when I do I also want comfort.

I also found the Drew Betsy on line. One site had it on sale for #39.99. (Orginally $149.99) It is a basic black pump but has more depth and one can add their own arch supports. I have ordered shoes similar to this style from other companies and have always found that my feet hurt. I don't believe that shoes should ever make your feet hurt! If they do donate them to a nice charity. Perhaps someone else will have a foot that fits them better? Yet, the Betsy is great and is a keeper as far as I am concerned.

Type in Mia/Aravon and Drew and you will find many sites that have these shoes. I especially thought the Mia shoe was adorable and looked comfortable. Janelle

In reading this thread, thought I might have some insight that would help others. I had a Morton's Neuroma surgery with an orthopedic foot surgeon on 2/12/08.

I later developed a stump neuroma and there was concern of Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) used to be called Reflex Sympathetic Distrophy (RSD) due to temperature inequalities and unexplained pain after the surgery. There is a test that can be done to rule our CRPS - it is a sympathic nerve block done in the spine. If you continue the same pain level after the block, it is very unlikely that you have this condition.

I stopped seeing the orthopedic surgeon as he seemed uninterested in my continued pain. I went to an excellent podiatrist who diagnosed the stump neuroma by seeing in on an ultra sound (they don't show up sometimes on MRIs).

I was in so much pain, I used a roller device or wheel chair to get around long distances.

I then tried a series of painful alchohol injections (one a week for 7 weeks). My pain level improved about 70% and I was able to walk short distances again. After a month, the relief of the injections began to wear off. I decided to research orthopedic surgeons across the country. Even tho my podiatrist (who is excellent) was willing to do the surgery (so was the orignal surgeon) - both said they'd have to come in from the bottom of the foot due to the location of the stump. No one was overly optimistic in a second surgery as I could end up with additional stump neuroma or other complications. I was given about a 50% chance of a second surgery curing me. I did not like those odds - so kept researching.

I kept on researching and have found an amazing surgeon who performed my second surgery (almost one year after the first). He was able to go in from the top - resect the nerve higher up in the foot - drill a small hole in the bone to tuck in the re-cut nerve ending. I had this surgery done 2/4/09. The surgeon was confident but not arrogant or egotisitcal.

He was the first of the 3 I reserached that I met with personally. I flew from Colorado to Birmingham Alabama to consult and liked him so much (and his 'near 100% optimism) that I went ahead and did the surgery on this first trip.

I am very glad that I did. time will tell as I'm still fresh from surgery at this writing. On 2/12 - I wll get the photos of the procedure - the doctor was very, very happy with the results.

What was more amazing is that my BCBS insurance had this far away doctor listed as 'in network' for my plan - how lucky can one get?

After suffering for a year - I am very hopeful. Again - I don't know yet as surgery is too fresh.

I went to Dr. Angus McBryde with Andrews Sports Medicine in Birmingham Alabama. The other 2 I researched, but did not actually communicate with was a Dr. Roger Mann (Oakland CA) and a Dr. William Hamilton (NY City, NY).

Not many doctors do stump neuroma surgeries on a regular basis - even my new doctor only does about 2 a month. But that's over a 40 year career.

Good luck to all - it's a long, painful and sometimes depressing journey. Hang in there.

Rick: Add to this growing list of people with tax problems the one that withdrew her nomination this morning. I am beginning to lose count here Rick. I still do not know why the Governor of New Mexico withdrew. Hope it was not over taxes. We now have 3-4 appointees with tax problems. One who is to head the department that oversees taxes. Something is wrong here Rick. One ok. Two its possible. Three we definitely have a problem and need to find out what it is. Four we are all turning into tax cheats. I will assure you my Representative will at least hear my thoughts on the subject even though they are Democrats. You could probably find the same thing with Republican nominees but at the moment we are dealing in the real and current world and with President Obama's choices.

Between the ages of 63-65 I took the choice of early social security as I was unsure if I would continue to work. I did continue to work so for every three dollars of social security I received I paid back two. As a self employed person I paid payroll taxes and federal and local taxes and other taxes associated with being self employed. In effect I was paying in the range of 90% taxes or working for nothing. I would earn a commission on a transaction and knowing I would give it all back in taxes I told the man I was a consultant for and who is a multi millionaire to not even bothering paying me my consulting fee. He probably had ways around my tax problems that I did not. After age 67 I think you can earn all you want to and not pay back to social security most of your social security earnings. They are of course taxed at your income tax rate. I am very much for a simplified tax system where we all pay a percent of our gross income. I do not mind if it is graduated based on income or that people below a certain level pay no taxes.

Do we have anyone left who does not have tax problem? Last year I received notice from the IRS that I had failed to report the cost of a security I sold in 2006 so therefore it would be given a value of zero and the sale would be all gain and I owed $2800. My sale and purchase was through Merrill Lynch and it was on their my year end reporting statement for all the world to see and this is automatically sent to the IRS. I also reported the purchase and sale to the IRS on my Income Tax Statement which was correct. In fact I had a loss. They also said I failed to report a $1.00 gain on something I never heard off. I just sent them $5.00 to cover what ever that might be. In the end they sent me a check for $.32. and agreed they had made a mistake. I doubt I could qualify for a Secretary appontment. But a guy who failed to report a limo and driver as income can likely be a good appointment.

WASHINGTON – Nancy Killefer, who failed for a year and a half to pay employment taxes on household help, withdrew her candidacy to be the first chief performance officer for the federal government on Tuesday.Killefer was the second major Obama administration nominee to withdraw and the third to have tax problems complicate nominations after President Barack Obama announced he had chosen them.In a brief letter to Obama, the 55-year-old executive with consulting giant McKinsey & Co. wrote that she had 'come to realize in the current environment that my personal tax issue of D.C. unemployment tax could be used to create exactly the kind of distraction and delay' that must be avoided in responding to urgent economic problems.She offered no further details of her tax difficulties.

At least the lady admitted she did wrong and withdrew her name. President Obama please have your vetting team get some training. They are killing you.

Result number: 26

Message Number 254355

Off Topic For Marie + Blago UpdateView ThreadPosted by Rick R on 1/26/09 at 11:06

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090123/D95T0GDG0.html

Marie,

I suspect that you are all over this but just in case, I thought I'd share. I wasn't sure I'd catch you on the social board.

I supposed I'm obligated to say something political, let's see....Oh yea, Rod the hairy one is going on the talk show circuit instead of attending his impeachment proceedings. His lawyer bailed on him I understand. Can't imagine why, supposedly he owed him a few hundred thousand, hmmmm that could be it. The other Badboyovich update involves his hiring a PR firm. But he can't pay his lawyer?

This closes the gap in the race for Illinois's citizen of the century award which is tightly contested between our Governhair and that Icon of law enforcement and model husband Drew Peterson. They now have the same firm doing their public image make over but to the best of my knowledge Drew goes to a barber occasionaly, not necessarliy a good one.

Rick: The last time we had no National Debt was when Andrew Jackson was President. He was responsible for removing the Charter of the Bank of the United States. This bank's deposits were backed by gold and silver As a result of removing the charter the U.S. Treasury would no longer put money into this bank and it had to close it's doors. Local banks begin to receive all the deposits that formerly were in the Bank of the United States. These local banks printed paper money that was backed by nothing (does that sound familiar). The. U.S. government deposited money in these local banks. Many of these local banks failed as they had nothing to back up their deposits and the paper money they printed. This led directly to the Panic of 1837 which threw the economy into a deep depression which lasted for years. Jackson became the only President to be censured by Congress. This for removing U.S. funds from the Bank of the United States.

Looking back on this I can see some similarities in today's problems. Replace the local banks who begin to print paper money with nothing behind it with the U.S. treasury. Replace the Panic of 1837 with the near panic we have today and which continues to grow. Perhaps, replace Jackson with Bush who the Congress, in both cases hated, and the deep depression (or recision) that lasted for years. History always has some lessons if one cares to look.

I think I discovered a spray that gives nearly instant relief from that deep heel itch. I also had the itching on my right leg just above the ankle on the back of my leg. Out of desperation I grabbed a spray bottle I had of Kaire Internationals Kolostrum spray and sprayed it on my heel and my leg and the itching stopped and hasn't returned. It seems to be nerves that are causing this sort of deep itching. I don't know if it will cure anything but it sure does give relief from the itching. Fellow itchers can call Kaire at 1-877-603-1710 Customer service and order this spray as well as the capsules. They have a special on right now (as of 1-19-09) for both at $49.90 otherwise they cost $79.90 for both. Here is info on this spray for FYI.

A Word on Kaire's KOLOSTRUM Processing:The colostrum in Kaire's Kolostrum line is sourced exclusively from USDA Grade A dairies that rigorously follow Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs). Dr. Andrew Keech, Protein Biochemist, who is the inventor and foremost international expert on colostrum and Kaire's Kolostrum products and is responsible for the building of the world's first dairy plant devoted exclusively to the processing of colostrum. This state-of-the-art facility is FDA registered and Kosher and Halal Certified. In order to assure consistent high quality in every batch, analysis is conducted during each step of the production process. The colostrum is free of hormones, pesticides, antibiotics, stimulants, yeast, artificial flavors & colours.

This IS a multilevel marketing company and I AM a distributor so if they need to have my number as your sponsor for ordering you may give them #11000445934. They will give you your own ordering number. Thanks. I am not out to make sales on this but rather to share with folks this really does work for relief and how you can get some of this spray. Nothing else I have tried has given me such instant relief from that intense maddening itching. And so far no one else has come up with an answer for relief for it either.

I just tried some Kolostrum spray on my right leg just above my heel and ankle on the back where it has been itching so intensly as has my heel and the Kolostrum spray really helped to calm the itching almost immediately. If it is nerves this spray can help. I don't know if will cure anything but boy I sure got relief fast with it. I can be purchased from Kaire International and you can call 1-877-603-1710 (Customer service) and order it if you are interested in trying some. 4564 Kolostrum Kit PRP Spray & 120 Capsule ****Special Limited Time Offer*** 49.90. I just checked this out today 1-19-09. Otherwise it is $79.90 for both. A Word on Kaire's KOLOSTRUM ProcessingThe colostrum in Kaire's Kolostrum line is sourced exclusively from USDA Grade A dairies that rigorously follow Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs). Dr. Andrew Keech, Protein Biochemist, who is the inventor and foremost international expert on colostrum and Kaire's Kolostrum products and is responsible for the building of the world's first dairy plant devoted exclusively to the processing of colostrum. This state-of-the-art facility is FDA registered and Kosher and Halal Certified. In order to assure consistent high quality in every batch, analysis is conducted during each step of the production process. The colostrum is free of hormones, pesticides, antibiotics, stimulants, yeast, artificial flavors & colours.Lynn S

Result number: 30

Message Number 253873

Historical Maps of Palestine-Isreal View ThreadPosted by cwk on 1/11/09 at 12:14

Andrew Sullivan's blog, The Daily Dish, which appears at The Atlantic site, published a link to a set of historical maps. The maps are attributed to The London Times, May 5, 2006. I cannot find them in the TImes archive although I found one reference to them. They also appear on various blogs. I do not have time to research the total accuracy of the maps but Sullivan and The Atlantic are reliable.

I think these maps are worth a look and so are the quotes from David Ben Gurion which appear below the quotes.

I believe senators need to have the intelligence to absorb vast amounts of information, analyze it and make decisions. CK is a graduate of Radcliffe and Columbia Law School, an author, successful fundraiser, a trustee of Concord Academy and a board member of several non-profits. I believe her life and career experience she has the intelligence to be an effective Senator.

Senators must work long hours and dedicate their lives to their office. CK has proven her passion for public service as Director of Strategic Partnerships for the NYC Public Schools.

I think senators should be able to network and communicate in DC. Obviously Carloine Kennedy can do this.

Ideally senators should be excellent communicators. Her prepared speeches are great but her press interviews have been less than stellar.

I think Caroline Kennedy has the intelligence, dedication and connections to serve effectively. She has not earned the political brownie points that others, like Andrew Cuomo, have. Of course he also got his start due to his name and his Kennedy in-laws helped.

Should all senators have long political resumes? Personally I do not think so. HIllary Clinton did not have her own political resume and despite what one thinks of her style or positions she was a very hard working and extremely effective senator in her first term. I am not a fan but John Edwards went straight from cooperate law to the Senate. Arnold Schwarenegger was elected after a long career as an actor and body builder. ( I think he is a poor leader)

I know nothing of NY politics so I have no idea if CK can hold onto her seat if elected. I think that is an important consideration.

Result number: 32

Message Number 253758

Re: Leading Democrats Not To Pleased With ChoiceView ThreadPosted by john h on 1/06/09 at 15:39

WASHINGTON - President-elect Barack Obama has selected Leon E. Panetta, a former California congressman with little experience on intelligence matters, to serve as the next director of the CIA, Democratic officials said yesterday.

DiscussCOMMENTS (6)RELATED COVERAGEEconomists divided over cutting taxesObama goes to bat for economic stimulus planHarvard Law School dean tapped as solicitor generalHarvard braces for Kagan departureObama set to name Panetta to lead CIANotebook: Franken wins Minn. seat but lawsuit likelyMore political coverageThe selection puts the prominent Democrat in charge of an agency that has been at the center of a storm of criticism in recent years, including the intelligence failures leading up to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the aggressive tactics that were embraced in their aftermath.

Panetta, who was chief of staff to President Clinton, is regarded as a bright political operative and capable manager. But if confirmed by the Senate, he would be among the few directors in agency history with no prior experience at one of the nation's spy services.

He would step into the post at a time when the CIA is struggling to stay abreast of the demands of the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the pursuit of Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups.

Some senior Democrats in Congress questioned the selection.

'My position has consistently been that I believe the agency is best-served by having an intelligence professional in charge at this time,' said Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, who, as chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, would be in charge of Panetta's confirmation.

A senior aide to Senator John Rockefeller of West Virginia, outgoing chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Rockefeller 'would have concerns' about a Panetta nomination.

Rockefeller 'thinks very highly of Panetta,' the aide said. 'But he's puzzled by the selection. He has concerns because he has always believed that the director of CIA needs to be someone with significant operational intelligence experience and someone outside the political realm.'

The Obama team had struggled for weeks to find a suitable candidate for the CIA post, after passing over former high-ranking agency official John Brennan in December, largely because he was seen as too closely tied to the policies of the Bush administration. Brennan withdrew after his potential nomination drew outrage among civil rights and human rights groups.

Panetta would report to retired Admiral Dennis Blair, who was picked by Obama in December to serve as the national intelligence director, a position created in 2004 to oversee the operations of the CIA and the other 15 agencies that make up the US intelligence community.

Panetta would also face the difficult task of stepping into the top job at an agency that has a history of hostility toward outsiders, though as White House chief of staff, Panetta would have been privy to the nation's most sensitive intelligence matters.

Despite that background, some CIA veterans expressed skepticism, saying that it requires years of experience to understand the complexities of intelligence-gathering.

A former top CIA official said that the Panetta announcement signaled two things for the agency: ' . . . a) that they want total political control, and b) the dismantling continues.'

In recent years, the CIA has seen its role and influence reduced dramatically as part of a reshuffling of the intelligence community. Agency insiders have feared that trend would continue under Obama after the departure of President Bush, whose father was director of the CIA in the 1970s and for whom the agency's campus is named.

Panetta also served on the Iraq Study Group, a panel of experts assembled to advise the Bush administration on the war in Iraq.

With his wife, Sylvia, Panetta currently directs the Leon & Sylvia Panetta Institute for Public Policy, based at California State University, Monterey Bay.

He will join several other leading players in the Clinton administration, including Rahm Emanuel, chief of staff-designate, in the Obama administration.

John- The most important change that President Elect Obama is bringing to the Presidency is the thoughtful, balanced way in which he makes decisions. He is a team builder who is comfortable listening to a wide variety of view points, able to make decisions that reflect integration of conflicting data and a leader with a history of bringing diverse groups to consensus. This is a massive improvement from the current occupant of the White House who set policy with little or no input from competing viewpoints, made ' instant decisions, refused to ever think again, and showed disdain for any process of thinking things through or ever having second thoughts.' (quote from Andrew Sullivan) Remember that GWB fired Paul O'Neill for questioning tax cuts. O'Neill's book described the frightening lack of rigorous thinking and debate which characterized the Bush administration. It is really no surprise that GWB's domestic and foreign policies led to the messes our new president, and all of us, now face. Thank God we have only 14 more days to go-------

I agree with Rick that the CIA needs to be reminded that they work for the President. I don't think being an 'insider' ensures success. George Tenant was an insider, having been a member of Clinton's National Security Team, Deputy Director of the CIA and Director in the late 90's. Yeah- we all know his track record......

It turns out that a number of conservatives are supportive of the Panetta choice. Writing in NRO http://tinyurl.com/9tmm4q Michael Ledeen say, 'I always liked Panetta. He served in the Army and is openly proud of it. He seems to be a good lawyer (oxymoronic though it may seem). He's a good manager. And he's going to watch Obama's back at a place that's full of stilettos and a track record for attempted presidential assassination second to none.........I think it is a smart move.'

Ben Smith at Politico http://tinyurl.com/a7ft7c reports that Richard Perle, Chariman of President Bush's Defense Policy Board supports the choice of Panetta. He quotes Perle saying that Panetta is 'a very smart, very capable guy with a lot of experience - I think he's the right sort of person to take a shot at improving the place.' Perle was and remains a big critic of the CIA. He also said, 'It's going to take somebody from outside to right that ship, if it can be done,'

Smith also quoted Douglas Feith, who was Undersecretary of Defense for Policy in the outgoing administration. Feith said, ' possible implication of appointing somebody from the outside is that the president recognizes that there are serious problems at the CIA and he wants somebody who is not a part of those problems,'

These guys are neo-conservatives and they like the choice even though Diane Feinstein is disappointed.

So once again President Elect Obama is demonstrating his intelligence, courage and political skill.

Result number: 34

Message Number 252872

Re: "dry-needling" and steroid injectionsView ThreadPosted by john h on 12/08/08 at 09:47

Where do I go? I am like Mikey I will try anything.

Question: Dr. Z we have all sorts of tendon transplants in knees, shoulders, arms, etc. Why could there not be a fascia transplant? Probably an obvious answer but just for information purposes. This should be right down the alley for Dr. Andrews in Alabama.

The vast majority of the shoes that Hush Puppies make are sorely lacking in the support mechanisms this brand used extensively in the past. This is a brand I no longer recommend to my patients, under any circumstances. Should you need shoes in navy, there are still plenty of available options among brands such as Dansko, Birkenstock, Kumfs, Drew, Ecco, Romu's and others.

Result number: 37

Message Number 251111

Who will bailout unemployment funds when they run out?View ThreadPosted by marie:) on 10/12/08 at 17:57

The well is beginning to run dry, especially in California, Michigan, Missouri, New York, Ohio, South Carolina and Wisconsin. There are a total of 32 states that do not have the recommended amount of money in their unemployment trust. It appears this may be yet another meltdown on the horizan. Does the federal government bail the states out?

I did a little hunting around on the subject and found this article.

http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=2&aid=151880

USA Today reported that people who depend on unemployment checks are not in danger of losing their benefits, not even in states where the funds are nearly insolvent. But there are big questions about where the money will come from:

The federal government is required to loan states money when their trust funds run short. In the short term, bailouts increase the federal deficit. In the long term, businesses pay higher unemployment insurance taxes to replenish the trust funds.

'Ohio hasn't faced anything like this for many years. I doubt other states have either,' Ohio Chamber of Commerce President Andrew Doehrel said.

The ChoiceNever in living memory has an election been more critical than the one fast approaching—that’s the quadrennial cliché, as expected as the balloons and the bombast. And yet when has it ever felt so urgently true? When have so many Americans had so clear a sense that a Presidency has—at the levels of competence, vision, and integrity—undermined the country and its ideals?The incumbent Administration has distinguished itself for the ages. The Presidency of George W. Bush is the worst since Reconstruction, so there is no mystery about why the Republican Party—which has held dominion over the executive branch of the federal government for the past eight years and the legislative branch for most of that time—has little desire to defend its record, domestic or foreign. The only speaker at the Convention in St. Paul who uttered more than a sentence or two in support of the President was his wife, Laura. Meanwhile, the nominee, John McCain, played the part of a vaudeville illusionist, asking to be regarded as an apostle of change after years of embracing the essentials of the Bush agenda with ever-increasing ardor.The Republican disaster begins at home. Even before taking into account whatever fantastically expensive plan eventually emerges to help rescue the financial system from Wall Street’s long-running pyramid schemes, the economic and fiscal picture is bleak. During the Bush Administration, the national debt, now approaching ten trillion dollars, has nearly doubled. Next year’s federal budget is projected to run a half-trillion-dollar deficit, a precipitous fall from the seven-hundred-billion-dollar surplus that was projected when Bill Clinton left office. Private-sector job creation has been a sixth of what it was under President Clinton. Five million people have fallen into poverty. The number of Americans without health insurance has grown by seven million, while average premiums have nearly doubled. Meanwhile, the principal domestic achievement of the Bush Administration has been to shift the relative burden of taxation from the rich to the rest. For the top one per cent of us, the Bush tax cuts are worth, on average, about a thousand dollars a week; for the bottom fifth, about a dollar and a half. The unfairness will only increase if the painful, yet necessary, effort to rescue the credit markets ends up preventing the rescue of our health-care system, our environment, and our physical, educational, and industrial infrastructure.At the same time, a hundred and fifty thousand American troops are in Iraq and thirty-three thousand are in Afghanistan. There is still disagreement about the wisdom of overthrowing Saddam Hussein and his horrific regime, but there is no longer the slightest doubt that the Bush Administration manipulated, bullied, and lied the American public into this war and then mismanaged its prosecution in nearly every aspect. The direct costs, besides an expenditure of more than six hundred billion dollars, have included the loss of more than four thousand Americans, the wounding of thirty thousand, the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqis, and the displacement of four and a half million men, women, and children. Only now, after American forces have been fighting for a year longer than they did in the Second World War, is there a glimmer of hope that the conflict in Iraq has entered a stage of fragile stability.The indirect costs, both of the war in particular and of the Administration’s unilateralist approach to foreign policy in general, have also been immense. The torture of prisoners, authorized at the highest level, has been an ethical and a public-diplomacy catastrophe. At a moment when the global environment, the global economy, and global stability all demand a transition to new sources of energy, the United States has been a global retrograde, wasteful in its consumption and heedless in its policy. Strategically and morally, the Bush Administration has squandered the American capacity to counter the example and the swagger of its rivals. China, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and other illiberal states have concluded, each in its own way, that democratic principles and human rights need not be components of a stable, prosperous future. At recent meetings of the United Nations, emboldened despots like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran came to town sneering at our predicament and hailing the “end of the American era.” The election of 2008 is the first in more than half a century in which no incumbent President or Vice-President is on the ballot. There is, however, an incumbent party, and that party has been lucky enough to find itself, apparently against the wishes of its “base,” with a nominee who evidently disliked George W. Bush before it became fashionable to do so. In South Carolina in 2000, Bush crushed John McCain with a sub-rosa primary campaign of such viciousness that McCain lashed out memorably against Bush’s Christian-right allies. So profound was McCain’s anger that in 2004 he flirted with the possibility of joining the Democratic ticket under John Kerry. Bush, who took office as a “compassionate conservative,” governed immediately as a rightist ideologue. During that first term, McCain bolstered his reputation, sometimes deserved, as a “maverick” willing to work with Democrats on such issues as normalizing relations with Vietnam, campaign-finance reform, and immigration reform. He co-sponsored, with John Edwards and Edward Kennedy, a patients’ bill of rights. In 2001 and 2003, he voted against the Bush tax cuts. With John Kerry, he co-sponsored a bill raising auto-fuel efficiency standards and, with Joseph Lieberman, a cap-and-trade regime on carbon emissions. He was one of a minority of Republicans opposed to unlimited drilling for oil and gas off America’s shores.Since the 2004 election, however, McCain has moved remorselessly rightward in his quest for the Republican nomination. He paid obeisance to Jerry Falwell and preachers of his ilk. He abandoned immigration reform, eventually coming out against his own bill. Most shocking, McCain, who had repeatedly denounced torture under all circumstances, voted in February against a ban on the very techniques of “enhanced interrogation” that he himself once endured in Vietnam—as long as the torturers were civilians employed by the C.I.A. On almost every issue, McCain and the Democratic Party’s nominee, Barack Obama, speak the generalized language of “reform,” but only Obama has provided a convincing, rational, and fully developed vision. McCain has abandoned his opposition to the Bush-era tax cuts and has taken up the demagogic call—in the midst of recession and Wall Street calamity, with looming crises in Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid—for more tax cuts. Bush’s expire in 2011. If McCain, as he has proposed, cuts taxes for corporations and estates, the benefits once more would go disproportionately to the wealthy. In Washington, the craze for pure market triumphalism is over. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson arrived in town (via Goldman Sachs) a Republican, but it seems that he will leave a Democrat. In other words, he has come to see that the abuses that led to the current financial crisis––not least, excessive speculation on borrowed capital––can be fixed only with government regulation and oversight. McCain, who has never evinced much interest in, or knowledge of, economic questions, has had little of substance to say about the crisis. His most notable gesture of concern—a melodramatic call last month to suspend his campaign and postpone the first Presidential debate until the government bailout plan was ready—soon revealed itself as an empty diversionary tactic.By contrast, Obama has made a serious study of the mechanics and the history of this economic disaster and of the possibilities of stimulating a recovery. Last March, in New York, in a speech notable for its depth, balance, and foresight, he said, “A complete disdain for pay-as-you-go budgeting, coupled with a generally scornful attitude towards oversight and enforcement, allowed far too many to put short-term gain ahead of long-term consequences.” Obama is committed to reforms that value not only the restoration of stability but also the protection of the vast majority of the population, which did not partake of the fruits of the binge years. He has called for greater and more programmatic regulation of the financial system; the creation of a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank, which would help reverse the decay of our roads, bridges, and mass-transit systems, and create millions of jobs; and a major investment in the green-energy sector. On energy and global warming, Obama offers a set of forceful proposals. He supports a cap-and-trade program to reduce America’s carbon emissions by eighty per cent by 2050—an enormously ambitious goal, but one that many climate scientists say must be met if atmospheric carbon dioxide is to be kept below disastrous levels. Large emitters, like utilities, would acquire carbon allowances, and those which emit less carbon dioxide than their allotment could sell the resulting credits to those which emit more; over time, the available allowances would decline. Significantly, Obama wants to auction off the allowances; this would provide fifteen billion dollars a year for developing alternative-energy sources and creating job-training programs in green technologies. He also wants to raise federal fuel-economy standards and to require that ten per cent of America’s electricity be generated from renewable sources by 2012. Taken together, his proposals represent the most coherent and far-sighted strategy ever offered by a Presidential candidate for reducing the nation’s reliance on fossil fuels.There was once reason to hope that McCain and Obama would have a sensible debate about energy and climate policy. McCain was one of the first Republicans in the Senate to support federal limits on carbon dioxide, and he has touted his own support for a less ambitious cap-and-trade program as evidence of his independence from the White House. But, as polls showed Americans growing jittery about gasoline prices, McCain apparently found it expedient in this area, too, to shift course. He took a dubious idea—lifting the federal moratorium on offshore oil drilling—and placed it at the very center of his campaign. Opening up America’s coastal waters to drilling would have no impact on gasoline prices in the short term, and, even over the long term, the effect, according to a recent analysis by the Department of Energy, would be “insignificant.” Such inconvenient facts, however, are waved away by a campaign that finally found its voice with the slogan “Drill, baby, drill!” The contrast between the candidates is even sharper with respect to the third branch of government. A tense equipoise currently prevails among the Justices of the Supreme Court, where four hard-core conservatives face off against four moderate liberals. Anthony M. Kennedy is the swing vote, determining the outcome of case after case. McCain cites Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, two reliable conservatives, as models for his own prospective appointments. If he means what he says, and if he replaces even one moderate on the current Supreme Court, then Roe v. Wade will be reversed, and states will again be allowed to impose absolute bans on abortion. McCain’s views have hardened on this issue. In 1999, he said he opposed overturning Roe; by 2006, he was saying that its demise “wouldn’t bother me any”; by 2008, he no longer supported adding rape and incest as exceptions to his party’s platform opposing abortion. But scrapping Roe—which, after all, would leave states as free to permit abortion as to criminalize it—would be just the beginning. Given the ideological agenda that the existing conservative bloc has pursued, it’s safe to predict that affirmative action of all kinds would likely be outlawed by a McCain Court. Efforts to expand executive power, which, in recent years, certain Justices have nobly tried to resist, would likely increase. Barriers between church and state would fall; executions would soar; legal checks on corporate power would wither—all with just one new conservative nominee on the Court. And the next President is likely to make three appointments.Obama, who taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago, voted against confirming not only Roberts and Alito but also several unqualified lower-court nominees. As an Illinois state senator, he won the support of prosecutors and police organizations for new protections against convicting the innocent in capital cases. While McCain voted to continue to deny habeas-corpus rights to detainees, perpetuating the Bush Administration’s regime of state-sponsored extra-legal detention, Obama took the opposite side, pushing to restore the right of all U.S.-held prisoners to a hearing. The judicial future would be safe in his care. In the shorthand of political commentary, the Iraq war seems to leave McCain and Obama roughly even. Opposing it before the invasion, Obama had the prescience to warn of a costly and indefinite occupation and rising anti-American radicalism around the world; supporting it, McCain foresaw none of this. More recently, in early 2007 McCain risked his Presidential prospects on the proposition that five additional combat brigades could salvage a war that by then appeared hopeless. Obama, along with most of the country, had decided that it was time to cut American losses. Neither candidate’s calculations on Iraq have been as cheaply political as McCain’s repeated assertion that Obama values his career over his country; both men based their positions, right or wrong, on judgment and principle. President Bush’s successor will inherit two wars and the realities of limited resources, flagging popular will, and the dwindling possibilities of what can be achieved by American power. McCain’s views on these subjects range from the simplistic to the unknown. In Iraq, he seeks “victory”—a word that General David Petraeus refuses to use, and one that fundamentally misrepresents the messy, open-ended nature of the conflict. As for Afghanistan, on the rare occasions when McCain mentions it he implies that the surge can be transferred directly from Iraq, which suggests that his grasp of counterinsurgency is not as firm as he insisted it was during the first Presidential debate. McCain always displays more faith in force than interest in its strategic consequences. Unlike Obama, McCain has no political strategy for either war, only the dubious hope that greater security will allow things to work out. Obama has long warned of deterioration along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, and has a considered grasp of its vital importance. His strategy for both Afghanistan and Iraq shows an understanding of the role that internal politics, economics, corruption, and regional diplomacy play in wars where there is no battlefield victory. Unimaginably painful personal experience taught McCain that war is above all a test of honor: maintain the will to fight on, be prepared to risk everything, and you will prevail. Asked during the first debate to outline “the lessons of Iraq,” McCain said, “I think the lessons of Iraq are very clear: that you cannot have a failed strategy that will then cause you to nearly lose a conflict.” A soldier’s answer––but a statesman must have a broader view of war and peace. The years ahead will demand not only determination but also diplomacy, flexibility, patience, judiciousness, and intellectual engagement. These are no more McCain’s strong suit than the current President’s. Obama, for his part, seems to know that more will be required than willpower and force to extract some advantage from the wreckage of the Bush years. Obama is also better suited for the task of renewing the bedrock foundations of American influence. An American restoration in foreign affairs will require a commitment not only to international coöperation but also to international institutions that can address global warming, the dislocations of what will likely be a deepening global economic crisis, disease epidemics, nuclear proliferation, terrorism, and other, more traditional security challenges. Many of the Cold War-era vehicles for engagement and negotiation—the United Nations, the World Bank, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty regime, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization—are moribund, tattered, or outdated. Obama has the generational outlook that will be required to revive or reinvent these compacts. He would be the first postwar American President unencumbered by the legacies of either Munich or Vietnam. The next President must also restore American moral credibility. Closing Guantánamo, banning all torture, and ending the Iraq war as responsibly as possible will provide a start, but only that. The modern Presidency is as much a vehicle for communication as for decision-making, and the relevant audiences are global. Obama has inspired many Americans in part because he holds up a mirror to their own idealism. His election would do no less—and likely more—overseas. What most distinguishes the candidates, however, is character—and here, contrary to conventional wisdom, Obama is clearly the stronger of the two. Not long ago, Rick Davis, McCain’s campaign manager, said, “This election is not about issues. This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates.” The view that this election is about personalities leaves out policy, complexity, and accountability. Even so, there’s some truth in what Davis said––but it hardly points to the conclusion that he intended.Echoing Obama, McCain has made “change” one of his campaign mantras. But the change he has actually provided has been in himself, and it is not just a matter of altering his positions. A willingness to pander and even lie has come to define his Presidential campaign and its televised advertisements. A contemptuous duplicity, a meanness, has entered his talk on the stump—so much so that it seems obvious that, in the drive for victory, he is willing to replicate some of the same underhanded methods that defeated him eight years ago in South Carolina.Perhaps nothing revealed McCain’s cynicism more than his choice of Sarah Palin, the former mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, who had been governor of that state for twenty-one months, as the Republican nominee for Vice-President. In the interviews she has given since her nomination, she has had difficulty uttering coherent unscripted responses about the most basic issues of the day. We are watching a candidate for Vice-President cram for her ongoing exam in elementary domestic and foreign policy. This is funny as a Tina Fey routine on “Saturday Night Live,” but as a vision of the political future it’s deeply unsettling. Palin has no business being the backup to a President of any age, much less to one who is seventy-two and in imperfect health. In choosing her, McCain committed an act of breathtaking heedlessness and irresponsibility. Obama’s choice, Joe Biden, is not without imperfections. His tongue sometimes runs in advance of his mind, providing his own fodder for late-night comedians, but there is no comparison with Palin. His deep experience in foreign affairs, the judiciary, and social policy makes him an assuring and complementary partner for Obama.The longer the campaign goes on, the more the issues of personality and character have reflected badly on McCain. Unless appearances are very deceiving, he is impulsive, impatient, self-dramatizing, erratic, and a compulsive risk-taker. These qualities may have contributed to his usefulness as a “maverick” senator. But in a President they would be a menace. By contrast, Obama’s transformative message is accompanied by a sense of pragmatic calm. A tropism for unity is an essential part of his character and of his campaign. It is part of what allowed him to overcome a Democratic opponent who entered the race with tremendous advantages. It is what helped him forge a political career relying both on the liberals of Hyde Park and on the political regulars of downtown Chicago. His policy preferences are distinctly liberal, but he is determined to speak to a broad range of Americans who do not necessarily share his every value or opinion. For some who oppose him, his equanimity even under the ugliest attack seems like hauteur; for some who support him, his reluctance to counterattack in the same vein seems like self-defeating detachment. Yet it is Obama’s temperament—and not McCain’s—that seems appropriate for the office both men seek and for the volatile and dangerous era in which we live. Those who dismiss his centeredness as self-centeredness or his composure as indifference are as wrong as those who mistook Eisenhower’s stolidity for denseness or Lincoln’s humor for lack of seriousness.Nowadays, almost every politician who thinks about running for President arranges to become an author. Obama’s books are different: he wrote them. “The Audacity of Hope” (2006) is a set of policy disquisitions loosely structured around an account of his freshman year in the United States Senate. Though a campaign manifesto of sorts, it is superior to that genre’s usual blowsy pastiche of ghostwritten speeches. But it is Obama’s first book, “Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance” (1995), that offers an unprecedented glimpse into the mind and heart of a potential President. Obama began writing it in his early thirties, before he was a candidate for anything. Not since Theodore Roosevelt has an American politician this close to the pinnacle of power produced such a sustained, highly personal work of literary merit before being definitively swept up by the tides of political ambition. A Presidential election is not the awarding of a Pulitzer Prize: we elect a politician and, we hope, a statesman, not an author. But Obama’s first book is valuable in the way that it reveals his fundamental attitudes of mind and spirit. “Dreams from My Father” is an illuminating memoir not only in the substance of Obama’s own peculiarly American story but also in the qualities he brings to the telling: a formidable intelligence, emotional empathy, self-reflection, balance, and a remarkable ability to see life and the world through the eyes of people very different from himself. In common with nearly all other senators and governors of his generation, Obama does not count military service as part of his biography. But his life has been full of tests—personal, spiritual, racial, political—that bear on his preparation for great responsibility.It is perfectly legitimate to call attention, as McCain has done, to Obama’s lack of conventional national and international policymaking experience. We, too, wish he had more of it. But office-holding is not the only kind of experience relevant to the task of leading a wildly variegated nation. Obama’s immersion in diverse human environments (Hawaii’s racial rainbow, Chicago’s racial cauldron, countercultural New York, middle-class Kansas, predominantly Muslim Indonesia), his years of organizing among the poor, his taste of corporate law and his grounding in public-interest and constitutional law—these, too, are experiences. And his books show that he has wrung from them every drop of insight and breadth of perspective they contained.The exhaustingly, sometimes infuriatingly long campaign of 2008 (and 2007) has had at least one virtue: it has demonstrated that Obama’s intelligence and steady temperament are not just figments of the writer’s craft. He has made mistakes, to be sure. (His failure to accept McCain’s imaginative proposal for a series of unmediated joint appearances was among them.) But, on the whole, his campaign has been marked by patience, planning, discipline, organization, technological proficiency, and strategic astuteness. Obama has often looked two or three moves ahead, relatively impervious to the permanent hysteria of the hourly news cycle and the cable-news shouters. And when crisis has struck, as it did when the divisive antics of his ex-pastor threatened to bring down his campaign, he has proved equal to the moment, rescuing himself with a speech that not only drew the poison but also demonstrated a profound respect for the electorate. Although his opponents have tried to attack him as a man of “mere” words, Obama has returned eloquence to its essential place in American politics. The choice between experience and eloquence is a false one––something that Lincoln, out of office after a single term in Congress, proved in his own campaign of political and national renewal. Obama’s “mere” speeches on everything from the economy and foreign affairs to race have been at the center of his campaign and its success; if he wins, his eloquence will be central to his ability to govern.We cannot expect one man to heal every wound, to solve every major crisis of policy. So much of the Presidency, as they say, is a matter of waking up in the morning and trying to drink from a fire hydrant. In the quiet of the Oval Office, the noise of immediate demands can be deafening. And yet Obama has precisely the temperament to shut out the noise when necessary and concentrate on the essential. The election of Obama—a man of mixed ethnicity, at once comfortable in the world and utterly representative of twenty-first-century America—would, at a stroke, reverse our country’s image abroad and refresh its spirit at home. His ascendance to the Presidency would be a symbolic culmination of the civil- and voting-rights acts of the nineteen-sixties and the century-long struggles for equality that preceded them. It could not help but say something encouraging, even exhilarating, about the country, about its dedication to tolerance and inclusiveness, about its fidelity, after all, to the values it proclaims in its textbooks. At a moment of economic calamity, international perplexity, political failure, and battered morale, America needs both uplift and realism, both change and steadiness. It needs a leader temperamentally, intellectually, and emotionally attuned to the complexities of our troubled globe. That leader’s name is Barack Obama.—The Editors

Result number: 39

Message Number 250501

Foot pain coming from back?View ThreadPosted by Nancy on 9/26/08 at 17:18

Hello - I have been having bi-lateral foot problems for years and even had unsuccessful bi-lateral neurectomies which still produce a lot of pain. I have been diagnosed with plantar fasciitis, tarsal tunnel, neuropathy, raynaud's syndrome, high arches, etc. I have been seeing a few different podiatrists and orthopedic surgeons over the years and my GP. I have been suffering about 6 years with no actual relief. Recently, I saw a neurologist who recommended an MRI of my lower spine and the results have come back with a compression issue of the L4 and L5. He also said there was something else on the MRI about the L4/5 but I didn't understand what it was even though he very kindly drew a little picture of it - like something bulging. I am scheduled to see a referred neurosurgeon next month. The neurologist, by the way was shocked that I hadn't had an MRI before now of my spine.

My question: What I would like to know is what 'kind' of pain would I be experiencing in my feet if it is an L4/5 issue? I have pain in my heels and tingling along the sides of the insides of my feet. My feet feel kind of heavy and I also have low back pain. It's hard to wear shoes that tie across the top of my feet. Does this description of the foot pain seem relevant to the L4 and L5 problem?

I realize you can't examine me, but I am looking for a more general response.

Result number: 40

Message Number 250155

Re: Palin never went to Iraq?????View ThreadPosted by john h on 9/13/08 at 19:36

Palin's son is be stationed there. I think he already may be there. What other candidate can say that? What other candidate can say I was a prisoner of war for 5 years? Fact is whether the Governor has been there or not or whether McCain was prisoner or not is almost irrelevant. Congressmen are always coming and going into war zones. Having been there when they come I can personally say it is usually a big hassle for the troops there. I had to always prepare a briefing and pull people off important jobs. The troops have to clean up such as for an inspection. Extra protection has to be provided. They do not go into harms way and rarely learn anything in a couple of days. They are there for a few days and then can report I have been to Iraq or wherever and am now an expert. It is amazing how one can go to a country with 150,000 troops for a couple of days and really learn much of anything. You are generally briefed on what the Commanders want to tell you. A Sargent will know more about what is going on in Iraq after spending a year there than a Senator who spends a day or two there doing photo ops.

For 4 years I flew Senators, House, and Secretaries on boondoggles all over the world. I flew out of Andrews AFB in Washington. These were to be serious missions. We normally came back with goodies loaded on the aircraft from what ever nation we were visiting. Most of these missions accomplished little.

Result number: 41Searching file 24

Message Number 249976

On Sarah Palin by a Wasilla residentView ThreadPosted by Susan on 9/08/08 at 18:01

This was an email so I can't give a link.

Subject: Fw: The Real Scoop on Sara Palin

Here's a copy of the Anne Kilnenny email that's been getting passed around by email for the last few days. Anne claims to be a Wasilla Alaska resident. Snopes.com and others have verified her identity.

She paints a picture of Sarah Palin that Karl Rove might not appreciate. Judge for yourself:

The Anne Kilkenny Email:

ABOUT SARAH PALINI am a resident of Wasilla, Alaska. I have known Sarah since 1992. Everyone here knows Sarah, so it is nothing special to say we are on a first-name basis. Our children have attended the same schools. Her father was my child's favorite substitute teacher. I also am on a first name basis with her parents and mother-in-law. I attended more City Council meetings during her administration than about 99% of the residents of the city.

She is enormously popular; in every way she’s like the most popular girl in middle school. Even men who think she is a poor choice and won't vote for her can't quit smiling when talking about her because she is a 'babe'.

It is astonishing and almost scary how well she can keep a secret. She kept her most recent pregnancy a secret from her children and parents for seven months.

She is 'pro-life'. Sh e recently gave birth to a Down's syndrome baby. There is no cover-up involved, here; Trig is her baby.

She is energetic and hardworking. She regularly worked out at the gym.

She is savvy. She doesn't take positions; she just 'puts things out there' and if they prove to be popular, then she takes credit.

Her husband works a union job on the North Slope for BP and is a champion snowmobile racer. Todd Palin’s kind of job is highly sought-after because of the schedule and high pay. He arranges his work schedule so he can fish for salmon in Bristol Bay for a month or so in summer, but by no stretch of the imagination is fishing their major source of income. Nor has her life-style ever been anything like that of native Alaskans.

Sarah and her whole family are avid hunters.

She's smart.

Her experience is as mayor of a city with a population of about 5,000 (at the time), and less than 2 years as governor of a state with about 670,000 residents.

During her mayoral administration most of the actual work of running this small city was turned over to an administrator. She had been pushed to hire this administrator by party power-brokers after she had gotten herself into some trouble over precipitous firings which had given rise to a recall campaign.

Sarah campaigned in Wasilla as a 'fiscal conservative.' During her 6 years as Mayor, she increased general government expenditures by over 33%. During those same 6 years the amount o f taxes collected by the City increased by 38%. This was during a period of low inflation (1996-2002). She reduced progressive property taxes and increased a regressive sales tax which taxed even food. The tax cuts that she promoted benefited large corporate property owners way more than they benefited residents.

The huge increases in tax revenues during her mayoral administration weren't enough to fund everything on her wish list though, borrowed money was needed, too. She inherited a city with zero debt, but left it with indebtedness of over $22 million. What did Mayor Palin encourage the voters to borrow money for? Was it the infrastructure that she said she supported? The sewage treatment plant that the city lacked? or a new library? No. $1m for a park. $15m-plus for construction of a multi-use sports complex which she rushed through to build on a piece of property that the City didn't even have clear title to, that was still in litigation 7 yrs later; to the delight of the lawyers involved! The sports complex itself is a nice addition to the community but a huge money pit, not the profit-generator she claimed it would be. She also supported bonds for $5.5m for road projects that could have been done in 5-7 yrs without any borrowing.

While Mayor, City Hall was extensively remodeled and her office redecorated more than once.

These are small numbers, but Wasilla is a very small city.

As an oil producer, the high price of oil has created a budget surplus in Alaska. Rather than invest this surplus in technology that will make us energy independent and increase efficiency, as Governor she proposed distribution of this surplus to every individual in the state.

In this time of record state revenues and budget surpluses, she recommended that the state borrow/bond for road projects, even while she proposed distribution of surplus state revenues: spend today's surplus, borrow for needs.

She's not very tolerant of divergent opinions or open to outside ideas or compromise. As Mayor, she fought ideas that weren’t generated by her or her staff. Ideas weren't evaluated on their merits, but on the basis of who proposed them.

While Sarah was Mayor of Wasilla she tried to fire our highly respected City Librarian because the Librarian refused to consider removing from the library some books that Sarah wanted removed. City residents rallied to the defense of the City Librarian and against Palin's attempt at out-and-out censorship, so Palin backed down and withdrew her termination letter. People who fought her attempt to oust the Librarian are on her enemies list to this day.

Sarah complained about the 'old boy's club' when she first ran for Mayor, so what did she bring Wasilla? A new set of 'old boys'. Palin fired most of the experienced staff she inherited. At the City and as Governor she hired or elevated new, inexperienced, obscure people, creating a staff totally dependent on her for their jobs and eternally grateful and fiercely loyal; loyal to the=2 0point of abusing their power to further her personal agenda, as she has acknowledged happened in the case of pressuring the State's top cop (see below).

As Mayor, Sarah fired Wasilla's Police Chief because he 'intimidated' her, she told the press. As Governor, her recent firing of Alaska's top cop has the ring of familiarity about it. He served at her pleasure and she had every legal right to fire him, but it's pretty clear that an important factor in her decision to fire him was because he wouldn't fire her sister's ex-husband, a State Trooper. Under investigation for abuse of power, she has had to admit that more than 2 dozen contacts were made between her staff and family to the person that she later fired, pressuring him to fire her ex-brother-in-law. She tried to replace the man she fired with a man who she knew had been reprimanded for sexual harassment; when this caused a public furor, she withdrew her support.

She has bitten the hand of every person who extended theirs to her in help. The City Council person who personally escorted her around town introducing her to voters when she first ran for Wasilla City Council

became one of her first targets when she was later elected Mayor. She abruptly fired her loyal City Administrator; even people who didn’t like the guy were stunned by this ruthlessness.

Fear of retribution has kept all of these people from saying anything publicly about her.

When then-Governor Murkowski was handing out political plum s, Sarah got the best, Chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission: one of the few jobs not in Juneau and one of the best paid. She had no background in oil & gas issues. Within months of scoring this great job which paid $122,400/yr, she was complaining in the press about the high salary. I was told that she hated that job: the commute, the structured hours, the work. Sarah became aware that a member of this Commission (who was also the State Chair of the Republican Party) engaged in unethical behavior on the job. In a gutsy move which some undoubtedly cautioned her could be political suicide, Sarah solved all her problems in one fell swoop: got out of the job she hated and garnered gobs of media attention as the patron saint of ethics and as a gutsy fighter against the 'old boys' club' when she dramatically quit, exposing this man’s ethics violations (for which he was fined).

As Mayor, she had her hand stuck out as far as anyone for pork from Senator Ted Stevens. Lately, she has castigated his pork-barrel politics and publicly humiliated him. She only opposed the 'bridge to nowhere' after it became clear that it would be unwise not to.

As Governor, she gave the Legislature no direction and budget guidelines, then made a big grandstand display of line-item vetoing projects, calling them pork. Public outcry and further legislative action restored most of these projects; which had been vetoed simply because she was not aware of their importance; but with the unobservant she had gained a reputation as 'anti-pork.'

She is solidly Republican: no political maverick. The State party leaders hate her because she has bit them in the back and humiliated them. Other members of the party object to her self-description as a fiscal conservative.

Around Wasilla there are people who went to high school with Sarah. They call her 'Sarah Barracuda' because of her unbridled ambition and predatory ruthlessness. Before she became so powerful, very ugly stories circulated around town about shenanigans she pulled to be made point guard on the high school basketball team. When Sarah's mother-in-law, a highly respected member of the community and experienced manager, ran for Mayor, Sarah refused to endorse her.

As Governor, she stepped outside of the box and put together of package of legislation known as 'AGIA' that forced the oil companies to march to the beat of her drum.

Like most Alaskans, she favors drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She has questioned if the loss of sea ice is linked to global warming. She campaigned 'as a private citizen' against a state initiative that would have either a) protected salmon streams from pollution from mines, or b) tied up in the courts all mining in the state (depending on who you listen to). She has pushed the State’s lawsuit against the Dept. of the Interior's decision to list polar bears as threatened species.

McCain is the oldest person to ever run for President; Sarah will be a heartbeat away from being President.

There has to be literally millions of Americans who are more knowledgeable and experienced than she.

However, there's a lot of people who have underestimated her and are regretting it.

CLAIM VS FACT

'Hockey mom': true for a few years 'PTA mom': true years ago when her first-born was in elementary school, not since 'NRA supporter': absolutely true Social conservative: mixed. Opposes gay marriage, BUT vetoed a bill that would have denied benefits to employees in same-sex relationships (said she did this because it was unconsitutional). Pro-creationism: mixed. Supports it, BUT did nothing as Governor to promote it. 'Pro-life': mixed. Knowingly gave birth to a Down's syndrome baby BUT declined to call a special legislative session on some pro-life legislation. 'Experienced': Some high schools have more students than Wasilla has residents. Many cities have more residents than the state of Alaska. No legislative experience other than City Council. Little hands-on supervisory or managerial experience; needed help of a city administrator to run town of about 5,000. Political maverick: not at all Gutsy: absolutely! Open & transparent: ??? Good at keeping secrets. Not good at explaining actions. Has a developed philosophy of public policy: no 'A Greenie': no. Turned Wasilla into a wasteland of big box stores and disconnected parking lots. Is pro-drilling off-shore and in ANWR. Fiscal conservative: not by my definition! Pro-infrastructure: No. Promoted a sports complex and park in a city without a sewage treatment plant or storm drainage system. Built streets to early 20th centurystandards. Pro-tax relief: Lowered taxes for businesses, increased tax burden on residents. Pro-small government: No. Oversaw greatest expansion of city government in Wasilla’s history. Pro-labor/pro-union. No. Just because her husband works union doesn't make her pro-labor. I have seen nothing to support any claim that she is pro-labor/pro-union.

WHY AM I WRITING THIS?

First, I have long believed in the importance of being an informed voter. I am a voter registrar. For 10 years I put on student voting programs in the schools. If you google my name (Anne Kilkenny + Alaska), you will find references to my participation in local government, education, and PTA/parent organizations.

Secondly, I've always operated in the belief that 'Bad things happen when good people stay silent'. Few people know as much as I do because few have gone to as many City Council meetings.

Third, I am just a housewife. I don't have a job she can bump me out of. I don't belong to any organization that she can hurt. But, I am no fool; she is immensely popular here, and it is likely that this will cost me somehow in the future: that’s life.

Fourth, she has hated me since back in 1996, when I was one of the 100 or so people who rallied to support the City Librarian against Sarah's attempt at censorship.

Fifth, I looked around and realized that everybody else was afraid to say anything because they were somehow vulnerable.

CAVEATS

I am not a statistician. I developed the numbers for the increase in spending & taxation 2 years ago (when Palin was running for Governor) from information supplied to me by the Finance Director of the City of Wasilla, and I can't recall exactly what I adjusted for: did I adjust for inflation? for population increases? Right now, it is impossible for a private person to get any info out of City Hall; they are swamped. So I can't verify my numbers.

You may have noticed that there are various numbers circulating for the population of Wasilla, ranging from my 'about 5,000', up to 9,000. The day Palin’s selection was announced a city official told me that the current population is about 7,000. The official 2000 census count was 5,460. I have used about 5,000 because Palin was Mayor from 1996 to 2002, and the city was growing rapidly in the mid-90’s

Anne Kilkenny

August 31, 2008

Result number: 42

Message Number 248606

Re: very concernedView ThreadPosted by Jeremy L, C Ped on 7/20/08 at 13:10

Not having any other information relative to your foot shape, or any other pathologies, any recommendation I can offer would be cursory. The following are all collections that possess broad, oblique-shaped toe boxes, with very dedicated forefoot flex positions and modestly rockered soles. Most can also be further modified to further reduce painful complications from neuromas. So investigate these thoughtfully, to also ensure that the rearfoot dimesions adequately match your own foot shape. Also keep in mind that models possessing softer rubber or polyurethane midsole compounds will feel better with the time you spent on your feet, teaching.

Dunham - This brand is owned by New Balance, so one of their marketing claims in in having widths available in all their styles. Their more traditionally styles shoes will have the forefoot depth meeting your request. Be cautious on some, as not not all have a protective shank long enough to ensure that the forefoot flexes accurately across your ball joints.

Aetrex - The Ariya Collection functionally does all you will need it to. Good width and depth, coupled with a decent outsole. You may wish to replace their stock inlays, as many find them to an odd fit. Avoid the new Grammercy. Although they have some nice, modern styles, they will likely not provide the forefoot fit you prefer.

Neil M - These are outstanding shoes, and provide an excellent value for their build quality. Again, be selective as they offer several different last shapes, and not all will be appropriate for your foot or foot troubles.

Natural Step - These can kind of be lobbed in with SAS, as far as styling goes. That said, this particular brand does an outstanding job in accommodating forefoot problems. All models afford excellent cushioning and forefoot space, the Milano being the most generous of all their styles.

There are rare options available through Clarks, Merrell, and Ecco. Considerable prejudice will need to be made to ensure the right fit and sole credibility are met. Drew makes an excellent collection of shoes; however, most of their present styles do not accommodate forefoot problems quite as well as the other brands mentioned. Best wishes for you.

I'm curious as to what drew to you this website then if it was not for the same relief that many people that come here look for. Although your point no doubt has some validity to it, you should maybe spend some time reading more than a couple posts here, because I believe you would find that many people have tried your WOW, pick up the phone method, and have called, seen, been to many doctors, including primary care doctors, physical therapists, podiatrists, chiropractors, weight loss instructors, actupuncture, shoe fit specialists, and several others. But unfortunately, we have come not come across the WOW fix yet.

Jeremy, I appreciate your advice and time however, I need you to put things into perspective. I know nothing about the shoe business and until my recent injuries thought wearing shoes were as simple as slipping them on and running out the door.

In layman'terms can you tell me what a dedicated forefoot flex position is? In the Keen and Drew line are there any models you can recommend for business ( I teach and need to wear casual shoes)?

Thanks,

Scott

Did not like the rocker sole at all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Result number: 45

Message Number 248552

Re: very concernedView ThreadPosted by Jeremy L, C Ped on 7/17/08 at 21:12

First thing, who the hell recommended a MBT shoe for chronic neuroma symptoms??? About the only worse fallacy among popular orthopedic brands would be to wear a pair of Danskos for that condition. MBT's work by destabilizing the rearfoot, and sending ground forces right into the forefoot.

There are actually lots and lots and lots of shoes that will likely help provide relief, along with complementary modifications. A few options exist with brands like Keen, Drew and New Balance. In addition to last shape and forefoot depth, be very selective in regards to the shoe having a truly dedicated forefoot flex position and enhanced forefoot rockering in the sole.

I sent a link to your blog to a friend of mine who has chronic breast cancer. (like Elizabeth Edwards) She loved your writing like I do. This morning I sent her this quote from Andrew Sullivan. He blogs daily at the Atlantic Monthly's Daily Dish. This quote is from one of his book, Love Undetected, about his experience as a gay, conservative, Catholic man living with AIDS. I think you and others who suffer from tts and pf might like the quote: 'It was like being in a movie theater when something goes wrong in the projector room, and suddenly the film slips, and the images are out of focus and slipping haphazardly beneath the screen, and the light flickers and the figures jump. And you wait for it to be fixed, for the movie to jump back into its space, for the story to go back to itself, for the scenes that have already been lost to be pieced together in retrospect. And you wait and wait. And then it dawns on you that, in fact, the movie will never be fixed, that from now on, this is the movie, and that from now on, you will have to find a way to watch it differently, to adjust your eyes and vision and hearing, to glean from its new disorder an order that you can remember and comprehend.'

Hi Drs Ed and Wedemeyer! Thanks for your comments. I feel I've opened Pandora's Box. My feet hurt, I've had PF - diagnosed by my doctor and treated by a medical acupunturist. It had improved over the past few years but recently began to flare up again and I will will travelling in Peru and Europe in September. I - stupidly it seems now, have always bought moderately inexpensive shoes and am now paying the price.

I virtually stumbled off the street into Foot Solutions and now own a pair of custom insoles I haven't worn yet. I paid $330 so I guess I need to try them out and see how they go. I have bought one new pair of shoes (Kumfs) and am seeking a lace-up walking shoe that doesn't look like a runner. My budget is tight and I hope to get the orthotic to work with both pairs of shoes - which is why they haven;t been cut to fit yet.

When you advise I see a professional - who do you mean? A podiatrist? A doctor? A certified Pedorthist?

My search for a shoe drew my attention to an ad in a local paper: Extra Depth Comfort and Specialist Footwear. In my naivety I thought they just sold orthotic-friendly shoes - which they do of course, but the place is run by a member of the Australian Pedorthic Medical Grade Footwear Association who is also a certified Medical Grade Footwear Practitioner. So they assess feet, measure and select shoes that will match the shape of one's feet. They fit orthotics as well.

I had an initial assessment by an 'assistant' but she found my foot difficult to recommend for and asked me to come back to be assessed by the certified pedorthist. This will be free but the shoes I was trying on range from AU$280-380. Models I tried on were made by Xsensible and Finns. I have a narrow heel but wide forefoot, high arch and neutral stance.

While I am willing to pay $350 for a shoe that can be guaranteed to be right for me (I need to be able to walk) - I worry I'm being led down a very expensive garden path. And I freely admit to near ignorance on foot matters.

What I was wondering is if there might be more reasonable brands of shoes I could look at. This shop only sells really expensive shoes. Yet for all I know they may be what I really need.

Krisserlis

Result number: 48

Message Number 248185

Re: Question for JeremyView ThreadPosted by BValena on 7/02/08 at 12:08

Jeremy, How you doing? Long time no talk. Thanks for mentioning me as a possible resource in the Raleigh area! I'm practicing for my self as Carolina Foot Support or www.carolinafootsupport.com and Tom Jones Home Medical in Garner, NC, www.tomjonesdrug.com serving Wake and surrounding areaa. At Tom Jones we carry Spira Footwear and Brooks as well as other reputable comfort/extra depth shoes (ie. Drew, Aetrex, Orthofeet, Relano/FLA, ComfortRite, Dr2 Shoes, etc...) I also work part-time on most Saturdays at the New Balance in Durham but will probably ween my hours as I build the practice at Tom Jones. Are you still marketing 'Down Unders'?

Ben Valena, C.Ped, CF-o

Result number: 49

Message Number 248131

General Clark's Comments On Senator McCainView ThreadPosted by john h on 6/30/08 at 11:43

Glad to see Obama distancing himself from General Clark's comments over the weekend. General Clark was a 4 star General who headed NATO which was a largely political position. He was never liked much by his superiors and was basically fired from his position. He was and is a 'want to be' President and would like some position in the new Administration. I think his comments will rule him out by Obama for any high position. The remarks were at best distastful. Obama's words and position:

Obama also sought to tamp down controversy surrounding comments over the weekend from a supporter. Retired Gen. Wesley Clark said in a television appearance that the Vietnam War-era military service of John McCain, Obama's Republican opponent, does not necessarily qualify him to be commander in chief.

McCain was a fighter pilot who was captured and held as a prisoner of war for more than five years.

Obama said that patriotism 'must, if it is to mean anything, involve the willingness to sacrifice' and sought to distance himself from Clark's remarks without mentioning them.

'For those like John McCain who have endured physical torment in service to our country — no further proof of such sacrifice is necessary,' Obama said. 'And let me also add that no one should ever devalue that service, especially for the sake of a political campaign, and that goes for supporters on both sides.'

The comment drew loud applause.

Result number: 50

Message Number 248020

PF just continues on (Dr's or Jeremey, help please)View ThreadPosted by russ h on 6/26/08 at 09:59

Hi all, well I have had my diagnosis of PF now for 6 months, although dealing with the pain for about a year. I had my worst foot shot with cortisone 6 months ago and fitted for orthotics. 6 weeks of aggressive physical therapy, (stretching, ultra sound, tens, ice), have newer shoes. Although my feet seem too of been doing much better (never been perfect yet), they have felt like they are digressing here lately. On my days off I wear mizuno wave rider 11 or asics cumulus which are suppose to be a neutral shoe which my pod said is what I need. I also bought some of the PG Lite Mens 1889, (at Jeremey's suggestion) which seemed to be quite comfortable for about a month and a half. My feet are getting/uncomfortable/sore again now if I'm standing in one position for very long. My shoes are under 3 months old, so they are not wore out. I do my physical therapy excercises here at home now instead of physical therapy place, except for I really don't mess with much of the calf/achiles heel stretch. I fear that those two excercises do more harm than good by overloading the pf and pulling it while stretching the calf/ankle.

I don't know what to do, I just went back into POD's office yesterday, my discomfort is a little more in the middle of the heel where the pf attaches than originally it was on the insides of heel attaching to pf. POD felt my feet and felt a little trapped fluid in there said I need to wear orthotics exclusively from time out of bed til back in bed, ice and more ice. I wear prescribed orthotics in my home shoes, I wear the pinnacle powerstep from this site in my work shoes, and I do usually ice about 2 times a day.I looked back at some of my posts and Jeremey's suggestions, he also recommended Drew shoes, so I ordered their standing comfort mens champion shoe. My POD gave me a shot (2nd time in right foot and first one in left foot) but he pushed it in a little further to get the medial band he said. But he also said, this is the last shot, if this does not have success I will have to look at surgery. I don't want surgery, I'm 37 years old, and tired of dealing with this. I have one night/splint/sock that I don't wear real regularly, one of those velcro,soft deals, I'm considering ordering another for my other foot from this site.

Any other suggestions here, my exrays didn't show a bone spur yet but if this continues on, I'm doing more and more damage. The shoes that I have ordered, all of the cushy comfort is in the removable pads, do you keep those in under your orthotics or pull everything out and only your orthotic go in?

I just don't know what else I'm doing or not doing to keep this disease, I roll a golf ball under my foot a few times a day too, you can feel the pf has some grittyness to it, so am I helping it or hurting it more. 5'8' at 170 pounds, maybe 5 pounds on the heavy side but not over weight. Sorry for long post but I am about pull my hair out with this. Russ

Sorry that the New Balances didn't work for you. I'm going to make an educated guess that that the sensations you had may have more to do with the midsole than the available arch volume. I've seen with certain foot types in the 882 where the lateral half of the midsole compresses prematurely, resulting in the medial arch area feeling too aggressive. Keeping that in mind, two shoes you can consider are the Brooks Dyad and the Drew Force. Both provide that broad shank area; however, their midsoles are made to be more neutral and balanced. The Drew shoe is definitely firmer than the Drew, if that makes a difference in your own personal case.

Also, exercise some caution with Keen. Now that they are solidly in a full product cycle following the transfer of their past, trusted manager there are definite inconsistencies in their line. Instead of the well constructed midsoles they used to produce, several of their models now use flimsy TPU inlays and no midfoot shank support. Shop wisely.

Result number: 52

Message Number 246531

100 mpg vehicle now reality!View ThreadPosted by marie:) on 5/03/08 at 15:26

These young men put their Prius hybrid on steroinds! The normal Prius switches over from electric to gas at 25 mph.........this one does not switch over until it hits 40 mpr. That is big! Most of us could handle that speed around town. The problem is that US auto makers are unable to foot the bill to retool our lines to produce a vehicle like this.

So the million dollar question for the Rust belt is which candidate is going to offer the auto industry a deal to retool and put Americans back to work? McCain doesn't care about the Rust belt or American auto industry so I guess it won't be him...........or will he change his tune?

http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=177764But brothers Andrew and Chris Ewert have put something far more powerful in the back of their parents' Toyota Prius: a lithium-ion battery pack capable of dramatically boosting the hybrid car's already impressive fuel efficiency.

Unlike a conventional gas-electric Toyota Prius, which gets about 55 to 60 miles per gallon of gas, the Ewerts' so-called 'plug-in hybrid' is capable of traveling about 100 miles per gallon.

And it only takes 35 cents' worth of electricity from a standard power outlet to charge the extra batteries.

'We've gotten about a thousand miles off of one tank of gas,' Andrew Ewert said. 'This is the future of cars. We strongly believe that this is where it's headed.'

Dear Dr. DSW here's what else is going on after my doctor sent me back to therapy he also gave me a prescription for triple density orthotics, I had the prescription filled of cost out-of-pocket $350.00 well they didn't help at all. The pain is, right now I don't know the right word to use for the constant pain that I have in my feet. After seeing my doctor several more times and one of his residents telling me that he thinks I might have what you call RSD, the resident said he would mentioned it to my doctor once he came into the room, well Dr. DSW when my doctor came into the room and the resident mentioned that he believe I might have RSD he immediately told the resident and I quote 'Oh no she doesn't have that' let me look at her chart again and see exactly what they did to her foot. Well that was a surprise to me because my doctor informed me that he himself was not going to be performing my surgery but that he was going to be in the operating room with the resident who was going to be doing the surgery. I just couldn't believe what I just heard my doctor say and just wanted to get out of their. Because by now the doctor that I first met in June was not the same doctor I was dealing with after my surgery. This doctor was like night and day, he seem to become very angry with me that the surgery was not a success and that I was still having pain in fact more pain in that left foot after the surgery now than I had, had before the surgery. I sought out the help of another doctor, I brought all of my paperwork to this doctor he look at my foot and asked me what type of surgery I had. I informed him that I had a partail plantar fascia release, he immediately said no way. Than he said well I mean there's no way I can see how he could have cut the liagment with the type cut you have on your foot. He lift my foot into his hand and and drew with an ink pen how the cut should have been made if you perform a partial plantar fascia release. My cut on my left foot is vertical and the doctor drew a horizontal cut. He asked to see my paperwork to verify if in fact I may have made a mistake about the type of surgery my doctor had performed on my foot. But when he look at my paperwork he said well that's what he said he did but I can't see it. This made me very nervous now. So I went to another doctor and all I told this doctor was that I had a partial plantar fascia release on September 17, 2007 and that I'm still having a lot of pain in fact the pain is worst now. This doctor asked to look at my foot and I couldn't believe what happen next. But that doctor asked me to see my paperwork to see what type of surgery was done on my foot. He stated that's not how you do a parial plantar fascia release, the cut is wrong. It was like de ja vu he lift my foot up and drew with his ink pen where the cut should have been made. Dr. DSW it was the identical spot where the other doctor had made the mark on my foot. I asked this doctor to please to a look at my x-rays so he did, he asked me if my doctor had cut out the heel spurs and I replied no, I was told by my doctor that he could not do anything about the heel spurs, this doctor told me that he could have cut them out. He said as long as you have the heel spurs in your foot you are going to always have the pain in your feet. I asked this doctor to please take me on as a patient and he said he would because there is other things that can be done to eliminate the pain or even reduce the pain. Dr. DSW that was the happiest day in my life, he told me to give him all of my paperwork from my other doctors and allow him two weeks to digest it and schedule another appointment. I did, when I went back for my follow-up appointment the doctor came out into the waiting room, I was the only patience there because I had the first appointment after their lunch break, told me he was sorry but that he could not help me and that he should have told me that ahead of time and went back into his office. I was in a state of shock my brain just shut down where I could not think at all because I didn't know what just happen. I have been on my job for 26 years as a manager, my duties and responsibilities requires me to stand anywhere from 12 to 16 hours a day and I have done that for 26 years. I'm out of work right now without a check from my job because I have exhausted all of my annual and sick leave. I have a claim with OWCP that was accepted however they have refused to pay me because my claim examiner say's my doctor is not filling out my paperwork properly. I've losted my home once because of hurricane Katrina and would hate to lose my home again because of this. I'm just trying to find a doctor that can give me my life back, I have/had a six figure paying job. My job is not willng to offer me reasonable accomodation or reassignment because of the physical requirements of my job that I hold and because of my medical condition. Dr. DSW where do I go from here.

Result number: 54

Message Number 245385

Re: Politicians and the market and economics.View ThreadPosted by wendyn on 4/01/08 at 15:39

John, I just read an article in a business magazine this morning that drew a whole list of parallels between the current American economic situation and what happened in 1929. Hope they're wrong!

If you're wearing the Genesis would good results, it's hard to come up with better options. The Volare III from Spira could be another worthwhile option. Spira's new cushion shoe coming this summer is outstanding, but I can only recommend it at this time for fairly neutral gait types (JenR, are you reading?). New Balance's 1223 also uses an internal slip construction which should help reduce heel pressure.

Also, you really don't need to provide all the shoe details for me; I know more details about most of them than the shoe companies' sales reps do.

The shoe that I am wearing now is the Genesis II SRG401 Spira. Is this a good shoe for the condition that I have described? Listed below are the shoe features:

SRG401 - Genesis SRG401 (Men) Shoe *A

Genesis SRG401 (men)S T A B I L I T Y Setting the performance standard for Spiraís running footwear line, the Genesis II combines Spiraís engineered cushioning technology and proven stability features in one shoe. The unique WaveSpringô technology, found in both the heel and the forefoot, provides unsurpassed cushioning and energy return while providing a stable platform for runners who have stability needs. The WaveSpringô does not breakdown and maintains 'like new' cushioning performance throughout the life of the shoe, while reducing impact shock, stress and fatigue. The midsole design incorporates a special flex plate for increased flexibility and a firmer density medial post and external shank for support, which works with the highly supportive upper design to resist over pronation dynamics. Voted ìBest Updateî by Runnerís World magazine for Spring of 2005, the Genesis II contains WaveSpringô technology in both the heel and the forefoot to provide a remarkable combination of cushioning and energy return with a high density medial post for stability. Menís Color: White / Black / Bronze (SRG 401) Menís Sizes: 7-13 , 14

A lot depends upon the specific Spira model, as most perform vastly different from one another. If it's a Classic Walker, it will be similar on a mechanical standpoint as both are very neutral. If it's a Volare III, they will be radically different as the Spira has substantially more rearfoot stability to go along with its cushioning.

The Thunder works well for me where I have to have greater in-shoe depth to accommodate either a very girthy foot or some sort of under-foot wound or lesion. It has a narrow heel fit, and allows for an acutely high instep. Those with initial rearfoot stability issues (either to the medial OR lateral side) should avoid is, as the midsole will compress easily and create an environment for potential injury.

Spira now has some men's casual shoes nearly ready for release that could benefit you. There's also a brand called Gravity Defyer, which may be beneficial for you. This has a similar heel spring technology, although not as stable. The brand is also to be avoided, if the potential wearer has metatarsalgia, metatarsal capsulitis, or other forefoot malady.

On a side note, did you ever have your podiatrist modify your existing orthotic with a heel spur accommodation? Techniques such as dorsal padding and pocketing can be extremely successful in cases such as what you describe.

If your foot mates well with the last shapes made by Asics and Mizuno, there are some reliable options for you. One thing to watch for is the type of outsole. Although boots with a polyurethane outsole will cushion well, you might as well be on ice skates in a garage setting. Certain types of rubber outsole will typically work best, just so long as they are adhered to an EVA or PU midsole. Some Vibram crepe soles may also be useful.

Danner - The Instigator and 453 boots have always provided good results for my patients in industrial and mechanical settings. Their work models with a Durological sole may also be worth a look.

PW Minor - Their Samson has always been a popular choice. It also is completely rebuildable, so you can get a lot more value for your money over the long term. Avoid the steel toe versions as they use a hard rubber sole that will likely not absorb the shock you need.

New Balance - The 926 is in their walking collection, but this has had lots of success in mechanical settings. The outsole also does an adequate job in reducing slip.

Drew - Their Standing Comfort collection feature some of the best made, professional duty shoes available. The models featuring their non-skid rubber with EVA midsoles are a tremendous value considering what's built inside. Avoid their wrap-around rubber soled models, as they are HARD!

PG Lite - They don't have any boot models worth consideration, but there's a new collection of models with non-skid soling that passes the USPS James Test. They also have a Poron heel plug within the midsole to further absorb shock.

I need some shoe advice. Please post if you could comment on Drew's orthopedic shoes. I have had heel pain/bone spur since April of 2007. The pain that I experience on a daily basis is right at the bone spur on my left heel. I do not have Plantar Fasciitis since I have no arch pain nor do I have that first morning step pain of any kind. My pain is persistent, but only at the insertion point (where the fascia attaches to the heel bone). The shoe that I am interested in has the following features:

The shoe is one of Drew's orthopedic athletic shoes called Thunder. Does sole depth matter? They have shoes with standard depth, some with more depth, and others with double depth to accomodate the shoe insert. Right now, I'm wearing a pair of Spira's with the Z-coil springs and have a pair of custom biomechanical arch supports that I purchased from Foot Solutions. The Spira's are excellent, but I question whether they have enough depth for the insert. Is a shoe that has a tempered steel shank and extended medial heel stabilizer better than what I am currently wearing?

I read back a couple posts and I personally have never hard that soft-tissue therapy could cause more harm than good. Subaqeous ultrasound, electrical stim, cross-friction massage and temporary heel lifts can dramatically help a healing Achilles

A UCBL device is a great option for planus feet that overpronate. Biomechanical is a good lab as well, so your orthoses are probably just fine. Your boots and shoes will have an effect on the devices efficacy. Don't tell me they're standard military issue?

You should give your treatment the time that your doctor has suggested to see the effect. If you must have a 2nd opinion I would see either:

Andrew Gerken, MD (949)722-7038orTom Viehe, MD (949)760-6907 (his father is a DPM in the same office)

Did you ever try the DRX9000? Did you read any peer reviewed literature on it? Have you tried acupuncture. I guess you think that's a scam too because insurance (at least none on east coast where I live) cover it and yet my pain physician recommended it. She claims it works for a lot of people. Didn't work for me. I spent over a grand ($85 x 12 weeks). I don't consider that a waste of money. What if it had worked. You of all people should know that many pain sufferers are looking for things that help, not to necessarily cure! I tried the DRX for cervical radiculopathy w/3 neck bulges. I paid $2400 for 12 sessions sessions and became pain free (first time in 2 years) for 3 months AND my insurance reimbursed 60% of that (out of network) because it DOES cover chiropractic treatments.My sister is a massage therapist and has quite a few medical patients who spend $85.00 a WEEK just for minor relief! That's $4420 a year for minor relief, but relief non-the-less. As a pain patient you should be careful to tell people what to try especially if you haven't tried it or can offer evidence that it WILL NOT WORK for them. My daughter has hydrocephalus and often has brain surgery 4-6 times a year just to get a few weeks to a few months of relief. Whether insurance covers it or NOT isn't the issue. Everyone knows the success rate for back surgery is quite low and yet it's covered by insurance. And every so often it does work and changes a life. Organ transplants weren't always covered by insurance and often failed, but the desperate continued to seek them. Today, their success rate is quite high, insurance covers it and many lives are saved. I think the DRX is worth a try for any back pain sufferer and should be mandatory for anyone comtemplating surgery.

My first pair of Brookstone Tempur Pedic slippers lasted more than one year. I loved them. I bought a second pair last X-mas and have since returned three times. Two pairs split at the seam down the front middle and one on the inside where the outer material meets the outer sole. The third pair has already split in the same place where the outer material meets the sole. I guess they have changed suppliers of these materials or manufacture in a new location. In any event, I would have to issue a 'DON'T BUY BROOKSTONE TEMPUR PEDIC SLIPPERS' until they address these issues. The store personnel are not helpful and think I am trying to put one over on them. All's I want is another pair of slippers that will last more than two weeks.

Result number: 63

Message Number 243785

Re: Hutchison on the issues and more....for real thoughView ThreadPosted by marie:) on 2/26/08 at 20:16

Ya know I find that interesting because at this same site I checked Kay Bailey Hutchison's record on the issues and found it very amusing what was left out..........she is a member of the The WISH List and served on the board until just recently. Suddenly she is off the list. hmmmmm. The WISH list is the nation's largest fund raising network for pro-choice Republican women. I wonder why the flip flop???? Is it because she's on the veep list???? Another Romney???? Do you know????

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Kay_Bailey_Hutchison

http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1996/campaignland/vpick/hutchison.shtmlutchison, the junior Senator from Texas, is a former television correspondent who is pro-choice and one of only three Republican women Senators. Hutchison, 53, serves on the Armed Services Committee and drew attention after the Navy Tailhook scandal by voting against four-star retirement for Admiral Frank Kelso.

I guess she got herself in trouble for her support embryonic research with you know who..........the Republican National Coalition. Yikes!http://www.rnclife.org/faxnotes/2005/jan05/05-01-18.html

A case in point: 'Hutchison's allies note that of 37 'key votes' listed by the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) the senator voted against the group's recommendations only once since 1997 — on a resolution affirming support of the court decision [Roe v. Wade] that legalized abortion.' (Ft. Worth Star Telegram, 12/19/04)

The truth of the matter is, Senator Hutchison is on record as supporting legal abortion until viability.

She has said she wants the pro-life plank removed from the Republican National Platform. She serves on the Honorary Advisory Board of The WISH List, a political action committee that raises money for Republican female congressional candidates who are pro-abortion-choice, from which she received $34,500 in her first Senate race.

Senator Hutchison is not pro-life, but if you rely solely on her voting record as presented by NRLC or others who track congressional votes, you would never know that.

Result number: 64

Message Number 243638

Re: Shoes for hallux rigidus and underpronationView ThreadPosted by David H on 2/24/08 at 09:57

Jeremy,Thanks so much for your advice and recommendations. I think the Pinto may work as a work shoe (our dress requirements are not very formal). The black Saucony Grid walker may work too.

I have noticed that tennis shoes and cross trainers are limited in terms of addressing the hallux limitus. I know Adidas and New Balance claim some of their shoes work for underpronaters. The Addidas Barricade has a very stiff sole- probably not a lot of cushioning. New Balance recommends the 803 Court shoe for both hallux rigidus and pes cavus - interesting for the latter, since the 803 is based on the SL2 (straight) last.

With my past shoes, the pedorthist I was using put me in the Aetrex (with carbon insole plates). We also tried modifying a Rockport oxford with a rocker sole and carbon insoles - these only lasted 3 months and seemed to exaggerate my underpronation based on the wear pattern. Foot Solutions put me in the Drew and Brooks. I think as a motion control shoe, the Addiction may have made me underpronate more, keeping a lot of weight off my toe.

Interestingly, the new insert I got from the podiatrist has a stiff rearfoot/midfoot (like a plate) with a lift, but the front (including the big toe area) is flexible. I had thought the front toe area would be stiffer, but I'll see how it goes and talk to him more at my follow-up (in 10 days).

Thanks again.

Result number: 65

Message Number 243532

Shoes for hallux rigidus and underpronationView ThreadPosted by David H on 2/22/08 at 13:38

I have high arched feet and thus underpronate. I've also have had hallux rigidus for over 2 years. I would appreciate recomemendations for athletic and dress/work shoes which would reasonably accomodate both conditions.

I have been using custom orthotics for the past year. I started with one generated by Foot Solutions which worked well in terms of supporting my arches. They were so thick, though, that my choice of shoes was limited. I just started using orthotics made from casts of my feet by a podiatrist. These are thinner, except in the heel area.

It's possible to achieve what you want with either brand, within reason. Drew, especially, uses a broad array of shoe last shapes and constructions, so careful guidance from someone experienced with the brand will be immensely beneficial. If you like SAS, you will also want to consider Natural Step. They have nearly identical inner construction, but far superior upper materials.

Has anyone had luck with these shoes offering support, but pain relief as well? For someone with a-typical PF (scar tissue in mid-arch), I am looking for something that won't poke into my arch from 'below', but still offer me support so that it doesn't feel like my arch is going to rip in half. Ortotics are bot cutting it for me.

Result number: 68

Message Number 243157

Re: Question for CPeds about arch pain & orthoticsView ThreadPosted by Linn on 2/13/08 at 08:37

Thanks, Jeremy. It seems that I do not have a Fibroma, but a long thin area of scar tissue in the mid-arch area of the fascia. So,I guess the technique you mentioned would not work in my case? It just seems that anything coming up from below grinds into my arch (or the feeling of my arch 'crashing down' onto the arch support) and causes pain. Can you recommend a shoe as you described? I thought I might go to Foot Solutions and have a look at Drew shoes. What do you think about their shoes? How about Ecco? Dansko Golden gate collection? Any other brand/style you can recommend? Thanks a bunch!

Larry, in those cases I usually get both good therapeutic results and graphic acceptance with the Saucony Grid Integrity walking shoe. The Drew Flash in all white also gets good results, although its midsole is a bit more susceptible to compression.

Result number: 70

Message Number 242870

Re: Any Suggestions on Helpful Post Surgical Products?View ThreadPosted by Dottie on 2/06/08 at 19:59

My surgeon called it an Achilles tendon lengthening and he drew me a picture of how he was going to do it. He drew a foot with a heel & ankle then drew how the Achiles tendon goes up the back of the heel. He will do two small cuts (not all the way thru!) but evidently just enough that when it heals it heals longer. I may have this description all goofed up but that's sortof how I recall him describing it. He did tell me that usually when he sees my condition with the Achilles tendon problem the patient has flat feet. I have really high arches. Almost like Barbie doll feet. I remember always feeling more comfortable walking a little on my toes for comfort....not wearing high heels or anything. I would be barefoot or just socks all the time if I could get away with it. But it seems 'toe walking' is one of the symptoms of having a too tight Achilles tendon problem. It might be another major cause of my pain.

He described some other techniques he was going to use to help the pain I have on the bottom of my feet. Something called (I think) topaz? He hopes together with the clean up of all the scar tissue & revising the TTS/PF surgery, we can maybe resolve this constant pain I've had for so long.

Here's to the hope that keeps us going!!!!

Result number: 71

Message Number 242783

Re: Any Suggestions on Helpful Post Surgical Products?View ThreadPosted by Dottie on 2/04/08 at 19:34

Hey! Thanks so much for that information!!!! I'm looking around this place online called Specialty Medical Supply. I saw the surgeon today & his asst told me that I can have other appliances I feel I need but to get out and around....and even just getting inside the house after the surgery, I'll need crutches. She recommended getting them early and practicing. I like the idea of the walker with a seat. Naturally, it is after hours so I can't reach my insurance company nor the reps at the med supply place. I want to ask questions about the crutches. I'm short. I'm barely 5'2' tall and I want crutches that for sure adjust for we shorty girls.

I need to see what Aetna will pay on appliances. They pay for wheelchair rental from specific vendor, however, I'm not so sure about all the general medical supply items. But, whatever, I am willing to pay for whatever makes this easier on me. I gotta live through this thing so I might as well make it as easy as possible. My last surgery cost over twelve grand to the insurance company. This next one will probably be more. If I need to shell out some dough on a walker that makes it possible for me to take care of myself, then so be it. I will say that being stuck inside recuperating for long periods of time has cut down on my shopping sprees...so I get to spend that money on (oh boy) crutches & walkers!

Do you remember the name of the company that supplied that walker? I'm doing all kinds of internet research. I can't imagine what people did without this resource!

My original surgeon so far has refused to send my med records to my new surgeon. I'm sure it is the office manager (his daughter). She would just say she never rec'd the fax -- that was her excuse many times with my disability insurance company. My current surgeon said it would be nice to have the notes but if they are going to be 'that way' about it, well, we'll make do. It is pretty obvious I had TTS & PF releases. I love my new surgeon...he is so caring and warm hearted. He listens to me. He has some other things he wants to do...something called Topaz (sp?) that he thinks will help my heel and other bottom of my foot pain. It's not something that requires stitches. I need to look that up on the net to learn more. He drew a picture of what he was going to do on the Achilles tendon and it doesn't look nearly as horrible as I feared.

Is it just me or does it seem like most of us TTS sufferers are ladies? I see the occassional man here but it seems like it's mostly females.

Thanks for the info! I am definitely on the hunt for short girl crutches and a walker with a seat!

Still fighting!!!!!

Dot.

Result number: 72

Message Number 241843

high arched feet with PF and metatarsalgiaView ThreadPosted by Kathy H. on 1/11/08 at 15:30

Hi, I have PF and metatarsalgia. When I got PF on both heels 1.5 years ago, I made the mistake of walking on my metatarsals. They got unbelievably inflamed, and have never been the same since. Granted I didn't walk much for a very long period of time, so I believe the muscles is my metatarsals atrophied? I am walking a little more now, and the metatarsals have gotten a little better, but they still get inflamed if I walk too much.

My problem is I can't seem to be able to put everything I need in my shoes, With my rigid, pes cavus(high arched) feet, I tend to supinate. I have a narrow heel, but with metatarsalgia I need a roomy toe box. I am currently wearing Spira Volare Retro athletic shoes(because of the wave springs for shock absorption and cushioning). They are supposed to be a neutral shoe. I could maybe use a little more lateral support. But I can't seem to put my metatarsal gel cushions under my metatarsals, plus my metarsal pad without cramping up my toes. I do have a softer type orthotic, but I need the metatarsal gel cushions also. I have even gone up from a 7.5 to 8.5 shoe to get more room. This shoe's(Spira Volare) heel is not wide which is good, but the toe box isn't roomy enough.

Should I consider going up another .5 size or more in the Spira to get more room in the toe box or should I consider other shoes(possibly Drew or PW Minor extra depth shoes)? These (Drew or PW Minor) shoes probaly don't have the cushioning ability of the Spira. Am I correct in that assumption? But they would have the depth to put everything I need in the shoes. I found the Drew Bounce UltraII and the Fitter on the internet and they said they were the best fitting shoes in the line. They both have narrower shanks that hug the foot for greater arch support and stability. But they both say they have 'extended medial heel stabilizers'. Does that mean that they would keep me from pronating? With my rigid feet and high arches I need to be able to pronate. So should I consider these shoes or not? Or should I stay with the Spira Volare Retro for cushioning? I have also looked at PW Minor Sporty Lady on the internet. As a high arched supinator, I believe I am suppose to have a shoe with a curved last or rocker type bottom, a good sized to box for metatarsalgia, a flexible forefoot and lateral reinforcements.

Do you have ANY shoes that you can mention or recommend with my foot type and problems?? thanks all

Result number: 73

Message Number 241282

Re: walking a lil bitView ThreadPosted by Tina S. on 12/27/07 at 18:17

I just got back from my doc today and surgery is tomorrow. He drew like a little map of what he is planning on doing, it was interesting to say the least. I will keep in touch. I wonder why the stitches are spaced so far apart, umm... Well I will keep you posted. Goods luck in your recovery!

SAS holds an exceptional reputation that was well-earned for many years. Now that production has shifted from San Antonio to Mexico, they no longer maintain the same quality value they once did. Although they are still well made, Drew makes a much higher quality shoe (for the same or less investment). Compare Drew's Parade with SAS's Freetime. For those with a substantially narrow heel, Natural Step makes an excellent shoe. Their new last (including models like the Lady Moc and Anne) has been exceptional for my patients, whether they have therapeutic needs or not.

I am now six months post-op. Was 100% scooter dependent for two months, as I could not take more than one step without exquisite pain. At two months, the intense post op pain left and I had a 'golden period' with about 20% improvement from the pre-op state.Foolishly, I began stationary bicycling (I'm an exercise addict which is how I got into this state to begin with) and soon got worse again. Now my decline is blamed on scar tissue which you can read about in my blog above. I bought a TENS sock which doesn't seem to do much and am constantly searching for miracle shoes and inserts.Saw Andrew Weil two days ago at a conference who taught us all relaxation breathing. 'I have not yet begun to fight' (lol).

Norm

Result number: 76

Message Number 240152

pictures of the ankleView ThreadPosted by james e on 12/02/07 at 19:06

well i got around to making the diagrams and taking a few pictures. i hope its ok to post them here. the diagrams might look fuzzy cause they're pictures of pictures on a poster board

diagram 1, what i felt during initial injury:

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l160/johnson420_2006/IMG_3103.jpg

top left picture is the hot poker stab on the inside, that i still feel 10 years later, heres a better pic of it

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l160/johnson420_2006/IMG_3087.jpg

top right picture is picture where part of the tear occured, and it burned like a zapping fire. heres a better pic

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l160/johnson420_2006/IMG_3089.jpg

and the bottom pic is a line where the foot was numb. the first half of it where the knot of the ankle is was torn open as well, i touched the bone lol. heres a better pic

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l160/johnson420_2006/IMG_3090.jpg

heres 2 pics of when i flex my foot

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l160/johnson420_2006/IMG_3106.jpg

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l160/johnson420_2006/IMG_3104.jpg

and lastly 2 pics of where the tear occured showing the scar. dont know if u can see the scar clearly in the first, so i drew the line with pain in the second. that flap of everything became trapped in the joint and they had to pull it out EWE lol

well i saw a primary care doc today, and he's a wacky one thats for sure. i explained to him my history about my ankle and he said 'jesus, you would've been better off just breaking the damn thing' lol, its funny, but its true.

my blood pressure was 150/88 when i was there. i have been having alot of acid reflux lately, and i think its because of the vicodin es, the 750 mg of acetomenophen/tylenol. back when i was first on pain meds, i was on norco's 7/325 and no stomach problems. with vicodin es just one equals the same amount of tylenol in 2 norco's, and its starting to wear on my stomach. acid reflux sux to say the least lol. he prescribed me some norco's, and im pitching out the vicodin es's. how should i dispose of them? should i crush them all up and put it in the trash or should i flush it down the toilet?

anyway, he drew some blood, and is going to do a full work up i.e. organ functions, cholesterol etc... and see if there are any major factors in my high blood pressure, before giving me blood pressure medicine. he says im on enough meds as is, and wowed at the fact im on kadian and vicodin. i dont see the big deal about kadian. it does nothing but make me a little sluggish throughout the day. why is it schedule 2 med, and vicodin is schedule 3? every doc i talk to is like 'wow' ur on kadian? it does nothing to be honest, but i take it cause its not good to use vicodin as constant pain relief

i discussed my upcoming ankle fusion evaluation with him as well. he agree's its a 50/50 shot at pain relief, but said 'at this point, what do you have to lose? if it makes it worse you're guarenteed to be put on disability, if it makes it better, you could have a better life'

also, every doc i've seen asks if im already on disability. with the way they say it, it sounds like i should be on it. he says ankle and back problems are 2 of the big things for ppl on disability. i never thought i could get on it, cause for one, i havent payed in enough ss to get on it. but i read a law saying 'if the injury happened before the age of 18, there are exceptions' and mine happened at 17. i know i've gone over it before on here. i did call lawyers and they sent me a packet for my doc to fill out, so the lawyer could decide wether to take the case, but they werent very positive about my chances of getting on disability. so i never bothered with it

do i need a doctor recommendation to get on ssi though? i guess i'll have to call around and find out who i need to talk to about getting on ssi. im really at the point though, where its a danger for me to drive. if my ankle locks up and gets that sharp pain when i have to hit the breaks, im done for. i know i've been over this before. sorry to be so repeatitive.

guess im just scared. scared about the ankle fusion eval BIG TIME. i have numbers for a mental health clinic that im going to call tomorrow. i have alot of issues/anger/fear to get out lol and i cant keep using a website to vent. i dont think i'll ever get over the fact that a stupid game of basketball did this to me.

blah, im rambling as usual. tks for giving me a place to vent guys and being so supportive of me.

i'll post again tomorrow after i set up the appointment with the mental health clinic, then again after the day of the fusion eval (december 3rd)

hope all of you are well, and that u've burned off some of them calories from a big turkey dinner. i tipped the scales at 236 today, which really made me depressed. i used to be 170 before the injury and in extremely good shape. blah, more rambling lol. good night all

Result number: 78

Message Number 239239

Re: shoe question Jremy or one of the doctosView ThreadPosted by Amy on 11/09/07 at 00:00

One of the pedorthists tried to adjust them three times. He finally gave me my money back. One just handed them to me and that was all. The other on, i wen back for one adjutment and just got fed up with the whole idea of custom othotics. Ifithe brooks ariel to be pretty comfortable, but am so tired of wearing snakers. I have pair of Drew shoes that are about three years old and a klogs (leather line) THey are not bad, but definitely less comfortable than the sneakrs. I could wear the Drews for day and then have to go back to the sneakers for two days

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrat Nancy Pelosi's pledge of a new direction took a detour when she fumbled an Armenian genocide resolution and raised questions about her leadership as the highest ranking member of the U.S. Congress.

Pelosi, 67, speaker of the House of Representatives and next in line to the presidency after the vice president, swore she would push the controversial resolution to a vote, then blinked when some fellow Democrats withdrew their support in the face of furious reaction from Turkey.

President George W. Bush warned the symbolic resolution to affirm the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide would harm Washington's relations with Ankara. But as long as it looked like it would pass, Pelosi stuck to her guns.

When Democratic support started waning last week amid protests from NATO ally Turkey -- which denounced the measure as 'insulting' and hinted at halting logistical support for the U.S. war effort in Iraq -- Pelosi wavered.

Critics say she miscalculated.

'It's certainly not her finest moment,' said Michael O'Hanlon, senior fellow in foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

'There's been no great harm done, but we do have to find some ways to mend the U.S.-Turkish relationship.'

Turkey accepts that many Armenians were killed in World War One, but denies they were victims of a systematic genocide. Continued...

During President Clintons second term in office he had the same resolution squashed and not brought to a vote by Dennis Hassert for obvious reasons.

Top NewsRSS FeedDemocrats waver on Turkey resolution

Published: 17, 2007 at 12:48 PMPrint storyEmail to a friend

Font size:WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 (UPI) -- Some Democrats in the U.S. Congress are urging the party's leadership to drop a resolution labeling Turkey's World War I killing of Armenians as genocide.

The controversial resolution drew a strong reaction from Turkey, which has long been a U.S. ally and NATO member, for applying the genocide label to the killing of 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks, CNN reported Wednesday.

Turkey threatened to deny the United States access to Incirlik Air Base after a House committee approved the resolution. The country admits to the historical killings, but objects to the genocide label.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., implied Tuesday that a final vote on the resolution may be put off.

'I said I thought we would bring this up prior to us leaving here,' said Hoyer. 'I have not changed on that, although I would be less than candid to say that there are a number of people who are revisiting their own positions. We will have to determine where everybody is.'

Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said last week he does not support the resolution and Reps. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., and John Tanner, D-Tenn., who serve as members of the U.S. House delegation to NATO, have asked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in a letter to reconsider the legislation.

I'm a 39-year-old, otherwise healthy male, with the exception of lower back pain that was around long before the toe fracture.

About four months ago, I was walking past a brick structure and hit it with my bare foot. The toe next to my little toe was obviously broken, as it was twisted upward and toward my little toe. I went to a walk-in clinic that day, where the doctor x-rayed, set, buddy-taped, and x-rayed it again, then gave me the usual 4-6 week diagnosis. She did not say anything about joints being involved, and to the best of my knowledge it was only a broken phalange.

Now, 4 months later, I am still on crutches. I went to a walk-in clinic Wednesday evening. Blood pressure was 120/90. Temperature was 99.2(?) but normal when I took it again at home. The clinic took x-rays, said my bones had a moth eaten appearance, said I could have a bone infection or cancer (specifically, multiple myeloma), and said they'd make an orthopedic appointment 1st thing the next morning. Thursday morning, I was told to go to the ER because ortho wouldn't take me without insurance.

The ER drew blood from my hand, took blood pressure and temperature, and looked at the walk-in's x-rays. Blood showed no infection. The ER doctor said he saw an orthopedic specialist wandering around and took the x-rays to show him. They agreed that my bones look fine and that I had Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy. By using the old term instead of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, I wonder how up-to-date he is on the topic.

After reading up on symptoms, neither of these diagnoses make any sense. I only feel pain when I apply pressure (atrophy from nonuse or swollen tendons?), my foot doesn't sweat and isn't cool to the touch, I've gained weight in the last 4 months instead of losing, I don't feel nauseous, confused or fatigued, etc, and if my bones were deteriorating, then why did my toe fracture heal?

************************************************************ So my first question is: What other possible reasons** could there be as to why my left foot is still swollen?**********************************************************

When I first fractured my toe about 4 months ago, I hobbled around on a cane and my heel for a few weeks before switching over to crutches, because the former made my heel hurt. As I said, I'm still on crutches. If I leave my foot down for any amount of time it turns a light reddish-purple, so I leave it up constantly, and have babied it all this time.

************************************************************ My second question is: What could cause my whole foot to** remain swollen, 4 months after a toe fracture, and after** the fracture has long since healed?**********************************************************

Yesterday, I tried stepping on my injured foot for the first time in these 4 months, gradually putting more weight on it until there was equal weight on both feet. The pain in my ankle was excruciating. Also, if I try to step forward, the joint that connects my big toe to my foot hurts. With either joint, the more pressure I put on it, the more it hurts (meaning, slight pressure does NOT cause excruciating pain).

Today, for the first time, lifting my knee toward my chest from a sitting position hurts my knee. It's similar to what happens with my ankle or toe joint, but not as bad. Since it just started today, I attribute it to standing yesterday, but my ankle and toe joint are no worse than they were yesterday.

************************************************************ So my third question is, could this pain be attributed to** atrophy from non-use for 4 months? Swollen tendons?** Any other ideas?**********************************************************

Below are links to digital photos I took of the clinic's x-rays. They're not the greatest quality, but it's the best I could do, and I made a couple of notes on them in case it helps.

I wish more of our posters who have PF had replied to your post. I think when you have PF, you need someone who can say they 'feel your pain' makes you feel better.

I wasn't aware you were only twenty-six. That makes it doubly hard for you. For some reason, many of us who have PF find it easier to try to keep up with our contemporaries instead of saying we have Plantar Fasciitis and then listen to them say, 'What?' Then we have to try to explain what it is and how the pain is affecting our lives and we're afraid we'll sound like wimps.

I, for example, was forty-nine when I had to quit my part-time job because of the pain. I decided to join the Garden Club. I loved to garden; I was at home now and they meet in the morning. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that they have a social hour before the meeting when they all mill around and talk and eat refreshments, standing all the time! By the time the meeting started and we sat down to listen to the speaker, I was in so much pain that I barely heard what was said. Add to that the fact that the group was most interested in heavy gardening, had no programs about houseplants or flower arranging, like the garden club my mother belonged to, and you get the picture. It took me a while to realize that I felt just awful when I returned from one of those meetings. Then I realized that most of the members were older than I and they were able to do things I could no longer do. I couldn't stoop because it hurt my feet so much. I had a little gardening wagon to sit on but the fun had gone out of gardening. So I came home, feeling like a schmuck because I was forty-nine and the seventy year olds were running circles around me! Yes, I graciously withdrew from the organization!

My son was about around your age when he got PF. He cut back on his activities but it was hard and I don't believe he shared his misfortune with many of his friends. One, in particular, understood because he had gotten PF while in college, due to playiing basketball. If you read the sports pages,you will see many athletes have to give up whole seasons and often their careers because of PF. I don't know where you live but I'm in NH, near the MA border, and our most famous athlete who had PF was 'The Spaceman,' Bill Lee, a great pitcher for the Red Sox and later Montreal. He had to give it all up due to his feet and now is still as crazy as ever and runs baseball camps for children and plays in an amateur league. He only mentions the PF if someone mentions it to him. I'd like to clout him for not talking about it more because he could have taken some of the mystery out of it.

So, as a result, unless you mention PF and someone has known of a person who's had it, they haven't a clue about how much you're suffering. All I can tell you is that there were days when I thought I'd never be able to take a walk again. I'd never be able to foodshop, let alone go to the mall. The trick is not to let the pain overtake your life and it's tough.

I'm trying to remember. Have you tried any custom orthotics? I know the doctors all have their own ideas about them. I happen to wear a brand most doctors don't care for: FootMaxx. For me, they were life savers. They were expensive. Back when I got them, they were at least $200 but I'm sure they've increased in price. I have bought a second pair, though, and I wear them with running shoes and they give me the most comfort. (Please keep in mind that I an NOT your average PFer. I now have progressive inflammatory arthritis and it's affecting my feet as well many other joints in my body. So don't get discouraged when I say I still have PF. 95% of PFers get over it.)

My son got a different type of custom orthotic. He got graphite ones. For everyday, he wears some that Scott sells on this Board, and I'll have to check the type and let you know. My son is a tennis pro so his custom orthotics are in his tennis shoes at the club. He goes to his Pod for an annual 'rehaul' as he calls it. He's had little pain once he got over the intitial year of pain. He was practice teaching and teaching tennis part time when he got PF. The only thing he had to give up was surfing. Here in NE, winter is the best time to surf and he said it really hurt his feet so he reluctantly gave that up. He still fishes though and that requires standing.

Why don't you start a new thread, on this board, and tell us what you've tried and what has or hasn't helped. See if someone jumps in and shares their story with you.

Bottom line is you WILL get over this. The pain won't last forever. You may never be able to do everything you did before you got it but you'll go back to a normal life. You may have to wear runing shoes with everything, as I did, in order to speed the healing process. I wore them to work with skirts and dresses and people either thought I knew nothing about fashion or I had bad feet!

And never compare yourself to how you used to feel. Compare yourself to how you felt a month ago or a year ago. I found that was easiest for me. I didn't feel so bad about things that way. You take small victories. If you couldn't walk around the supermarket or the block two months ago, and three weeks from now you can, that's a victory. It doesn't matter if you used to be able to do either of those things times ten before PF. You want to measure what you can do now, as your healing progresses, against what you could do when you first got PF.

The gentleman she speaks of would be an excellent man to seek, as he also founded the Eneslow pedorthic education school, and is also a founding member of Pedorthic Education Alliance. I have only met him briefly, but I would believe he would have a keen enough eye to make a proper pedorthic evaluation.

I've been to Enslow and that is a good choice. Tell them that you are very difficult and need someone very skilled to work with. I was seen by the owner who is also the twin brother of the man who owns Aetrex here in N.J. He is very knowledgable, see if you can have an appt with him.

Eneslow - The Foot Comfort Center470 Park Ave S at 32nd StNew York, NY 10016Phone: (212)477-2300If you are close to NYC . Great place to get help and fitted for shoes and orthosis. Very professional. I was present at their opening. Excellent styles.

There are two excellent pedorthic shoe retailers who are not too far away (keep in mind, I live in the mountains of western North Carolina, so my opinion of what is not too far may vary widely from others' beliefs).

If anyone does know of a GOOD pedorthist in NJ or even the part of PA nearest NJ, please let me know!!!!!! I have no problems traveling a bit and paying the money to get one or two pair of GOOD shoes. I am absolutely convinced that while shoes alone do not cure plantar fasciitis, the proper shoes can make a huge difference in day to day comfort level. I am willing to sacrifice on style for comfort. I am 50 and don't want to look like I am wearing corrective shoes designed for a 90 year old.

Jeremy, your post about quality of C Peds should be laser etched into a brass plaque. I kind of gave up long ago on out profession advancing. I clean up messes often from out local solutions store and some of the things patients tell me are hilarious, were it not so scary.

As you are aware there is a large gap in out ranks. The politics also irks me as there is not enough education FORCED on people but the meetings and symposiums seem to be ruled by a few egos that dont have the clinical skills or knowledge they should. I've seen and un-done some work by a few of the higher ups that amazed me based on their position in the group, I expected better

Over the past three years, I have had two different orthotists make me custom orthotics. The two sets of orthotics were very different in style. I have found the Brooks Ariel to be more comfortable than my custom orthotics. I have tried a number of 'good quality' shoes as well as taping, ESWT, Cryo, two weeks in a soft cast, injections. My symptoms wax and wane but have never gone away completely. When the symptoms are at their best, I have some discomfort but make it through a day of work without any major problems. When the symptoms flare up, I start limping without even realizing it. Co-workers will ask if I am ok because I am limping.

You're not alone being frustrated with PF, but if you have chronic PF, a shoe , any shoe is very unlikely to help. Anybody with the same size foot can wear the same size shoe.

It is the optimal position of your foot on the ground (or in a shoe) that allows for greatest efficiency. This will also transfer as a benefit throughout your posture.

Have you tried arch supports, or custom supports?

Result number: 93

Message Number 236389

Re: SO frustrated long postView ThreadPosted by Stacy on 9/19/07 at 22:34

How do I determine if I am a moderate or severe pronator? One pedorthist told me that I am a mild to moderate pronator while another said that I am moderate to severe. One podiatrist told me that my arches were somewhat low while another told me that they were quite low. When 'professionals' tell me different things, how could I determine my real needs in shoe wear? I have gone to two different foot solution stores (with pedorthists) and two different small independent stores with pedorthists. I am growing frustrated by the lack of consistency in shoe recomendations between one shoe store and another. When I walk, I do not walk on the inside of my feet, however I do have fairly thick calous formation on the side and bottom of both big toes. One pedorthist said that it is due to pronation while I am pushing off. I definitely do best with shoes that have LOTS of cushioning and that distribute the pressure over the entire foot. In many shoes, every step feels as if I am stamping on my heels. One pedorthist wanted to sell me a shoe (Jenny) from the Drew barefoot freedom line. It felt ok, but definitely would not have been a shoe that I could wear for any period of time. I also tried on the blossm which felt more comfortable. I think that the blossom felt much more cushioned and it also felt as if the stresses from walking were distributed over the entire foot instead of just the heel area.

I don't know if I am responding well to the cushioning in the ariel or the support or both. The reason I got the Ariel is that a pedorthist at a local shoe store said that they are very good for plantar fascitis. I really feel that many pedorthists just read the literature from companies and make reccomendations accordingly instead of REALLY examining a persons gait, foot propulsion etc to make appropriate footwear recomendations.

Any suggestions would be appreciated in finding a knowledgable pedorthist who is more interested in giving me the proper footwear than finding something from his/her inventory. I live in NJ and am willing to drive an hour or so to go to someone really good. I realize that just because someone is a cerfified pedorthist doesn't guarentee quality.

What other shoe lines (styles) are good for those who need lots of cushioning.

That's a difficult question to adequately answer for you. First you say that you are a mild to moderate pronator, but you have success with a Brooks Ariel (which is a very solid motion control shoe, usually recommended for severe pronators). So the question is, do you do well with this shoe because of it's excellent cushioning, or do you pronate more than you believe and require it's support characteristics?

The Blossom is a VERY rigid shoe. Those who do well with it have a need for outstanding motion control, and have a fairly large volume instep. Those requiring a lot of shock absorption should seek elsewhere. Within Drew the latter can generally find good relief with a Desiree. There may also be better choices in other shoe collections.

I have chronic plantar fascitis that waxes and wanes. So far, I have been pretty much living in my brooks ariel but I really do need some shoes. What is your opinion about Drew Blossom for plantar fasciitis and mild to moderate pronation?

Based on what you describe, you may benefit from a shoe with a broad shank and adequate rockering in the forefoot. Even with the shoes I'll mention below, it will be critical for you to ensure that the shoe size matches your ball length, and not necessarily your overall measured foot size. With this being the case, I strongly recommend that you shop from someone who is knowledgeable and experienced both in measuring and fitting footwear.

Brooks Dyad - You might not need as much medial control as what the Addiction forces. Too much control in a foot that doesn't require it could further irritate your metatarsal pain. This shoe is built on the same platform, but has a neutral based midsole.

Bite - There are several models to consider among their Orthosport category. In addition to having a last shape that may benefit you, they have a very precise flex that helps reduce a variety of forefoot problems with my patients.

Drew Force - Just a really well made, stable athletic shoe that almost nobody knows about. It has an excellent rocker in it's sole, and the double depth construction allows for quite a bit of internal therapeutic modifications.

Aetrex Lenex - Basically, a Drew Force Lite. Does most everything the Drew does, but is not as stable in the lateral column.

Here are a few things that jump out at me. You seem to have the greatest success with shoes that have very soft polyurethane soling, coupled with a softer stock inlay and a reasonable amount of shank support. This is confirmed through your preference for the 992 and older type Propet (yes, they like many other companies are reducing build quality in order to match historic retail margin while producing improved manufacturer profits). Further, you previously stated that the Drew Lilly was very comfortable for you. Since you now say that you cannot tolerate Drews, I am left to assume that you have compressed the thick, soft inlay that shoe possesses, and are left to the very rigid shanking and PU sole beneath it.

I wish I could say there are a plethora of brands/models that meet these kinds of design elements. The good news is that there are a substantial number still being made, but it may take some digging by you to find them. Keep in mind that in most cases you should not isolate individual brands as a whole. Companies like Drew and New Balance have extraordinary depth in both product and last selection. Although they make a few shoes that would work well, they also make a lot of stuff you couldn't tolerate. It will take some investment in time to find the ones that work for you, unless you can get personal guided assistance. Here are some brands you ought to consider:

Clarks - If you can still find some of the older models still available on close-out, pounce on them. The current collection may not meet your functional nor comfort needs.

Merrell - Although they do not use PU in their comfort category, their EVA midsole is usually reinforced with TPU or other supportive element. Their stock inlays ought to be easily tolerated by you.

Born - This is a brand where almost everything will work for you, or nothing will. Although, based on their standard construction, they are worth consideration.

XSensible - This brand has improved dramatically in the last couple years, both stylistically and fit-wise. Their attention to construction quality has never wavered.

Klogs - Wait a few months prior to checking into these. The Spring 2008 collection will better match your graphic and functional needs.

Soft Spots - I recommend this with some trepidation. There are a few models which ought to work well, smothered by a lot of stuff that have no chance of providing relief.

I have a pair of shoes made by Propet that are the only thing I can tolerate besides NB992's. But they don't seem to be making that style anymore. They have a lot of arch support and the footbed feels nice and padded. I can't tolerate Drew shoes. Any suggestions?

you can also have a neurostimulator implanted in the spine that can be controlled with a handheld remote. I just came back from a seminar in LA where a pain management specialist spoke on this very subject. The procedure takes about 2 hours to perform. The dr was Andrew Enger,MD from beverly hills

Result number: 100

Message Number 235606

Re: Status of Iraq/Kurds/Libya/TurkeyView ThreadPosted by john h on 9/06/07 at 19:01

Many years ago (late 50's) I flew regular flights into Turkey and Northern Iraq. ?t that time there were no fundamentalist as there are today. I felt safe anywhere I went. On one flight to Turkey I was carrying a little over 100 high ranking Turkish Army Officers. They had attended the Army War College for about a year in the USA. After depating Frankfurt (fuel stop) and before we had reached Turkish air space I received a radio message to abort the mission and return to Frankfurt. I was advised there had been a military coup in Turkey and the Officers were in danger of being shot if we had landed in Turkey. I do not recall the politics of this event or how it turned out. I do know that Turks are some of the toughest soldiers in the world. You would never want to be captured by these guys if you were there enemy. I doubt that they subscribe to the Geneva Convention.

Currently the Kurds have pretty much sealed off their boders as they view them. Their economy seems to be flourshing. Iraqis who are not Kurds must have a Kurd vouch for them to enter what they perceive as their country. They of course want to be an independant nation and want the large oil reserves in their area. From what I read their has been only one attack (small one) in the Kurdish territory in the last year. I read they had dug large trenches all around their area to prevent any vehicles from entering without going through a check point. This has proven effective. I doubt the Kurds will ever come under control of a unified Iraq dominated by the other sects. It was probably a mistake in the first place that they were made part of Iraq when the Brits drew the boundries for Iraq. We never see anything on the news about the Kurds. I do not even know if we have any troops in thier area unless it is to help with the oil fields. The Kurds greatest problem is with Turkey. Is it not amazing that a nation with one of the largest oil reserves in the world (Iraq) has a tremendous gas shortage? Actually much of the middle east cannot refine their own oil.

Another nation in the middle east that was once our greatest enemy is no longer on the radar and that is Libya. Our chief trouble maker there I assume decided war with the Americans was not worth the cost. I have no idea how they are doing economically. I assume ok as they are never in the news. I would like to know the relationship between Libya and Iran at this time?

In my opinion, it's no good. With it being built on a SL-2 last, the heel and collar will likely be too aggressive towards her symptoms.

Another option that just occurred to me is a Drew Motion. It's a stable, plain white athletic shoe that has a decent amount of collar accommodation. It also provides copious amount a instep volume. You can see it at www.drewshoe.com

Result number: 102

Message Number 235077

Re: anyone... someone...this is my big reach out to the people at heelspurs.comView ThreadPosted by Kevin L on 8/28/07 at 17:48

Dr. DSW - I did page the oncall doctor this morning. After 2 1/2 hours didn't get a return call. My husband took me to the hospital. They removed all of the dressing, steri strips, etc. Cleaned the area & did a set of x-rays. Once they removed the steri strips the whole area around the incision (width of steri strips) was bright red, raised, burning and itching. This irritation was also well over an inch above the incision also. It was decided that it is not infected. They feel it is an extremely bad allergic reaction. They drew a new line around the red area, gave me new Rx(s), re-dressed the area (without any tape or steri strips) and put me back together. If the redness, swelling and/or irritation gets worse tonight or tomorrow - I'm to return. Otherwise, I'll follow up with the surgeon on Monday.

I agree. That is why I called their office twice yesterday. The doctor that I spoke with is very familiar with my case. He's seen me post op after the last Sx when my doctor was out of town. He wouldn't return to the office to see me.

Last night with the irritation in and around the incision, it started a progression of very intense spasms in the foot, toes, ankle, calf, etc. I did have some extra Soma on had from prior to the Sx and finally took a dose. It did help settle the spasms down. The back of my ankle started to hurt, burn and itch. I unwrapped the dressings and the back of my ankle is not red. I have put an antibiotic cream on the area and have taken the Doxycycline. I have been using hot packs (which make it feel worse) and then switching over to cold packs. This morning the redness above the incision has gotten a little worse - it is outside of the line we drew yesterday.

How long do I give the Doxycycline to work? I'm afraid to let this go! I'll try to call the exchange and reach the doctor on call (although it is the same doctor I spoke with yesterday). I'll probably end up back at the ER.

One more thing....got to my f/u xrays in the computer...here's what they say...

Original MRI: 1 cm os trigonum is demonstrated. There is no abnormal bright T2 signal at the synchondrosis to suggest abnormal motion. Posterior tibialis, flexor digitorum longus, flexor hallicus longus and peroneus brevis/longus tendons are normal. No focal abnormalities involving the achilles tendon. Plantar fascia and sinus tarsus are normal. Small tibiotalar and subtalarjoint effusion. Musculature is normal in appearance. Normal anterior talofibular ligament. Small quantity of fluid within the tendon sheath of the posterior tibialis tendon may correspond with tendonosis.

Post op Xray 2 weeks out: Subcentimeter osseous fragments are seen adjacent to the lateral aspect of the first distal interphalangeal joints bilaterally and suggestive of unfused secondary centers of ossification. No acute fractures or dislocations. The articular cortices are smooth and regular and the articular cartilage spacing is normally maintained. No periarticular calcifications or soft tissue masses are present.

Most recent Xray: Six mm osseous fracture adjacent to the lateral aspect of the first distal interphalangeal joint is suggestive of an old avulsion fracture fragment versus and unfused secondary center of ossification, unchanged. No other osseous or soft tissue abnormalities. Interval surgical resection of the osnaviculare since the 23 August 2006 evaluation.

*Advantages to having access to the computer system at the facility you're treated/work in* :)

So Dr's....de-code the Dr speak please! :) Thank you all soooo much for your help

Ok, so another update. I stood on my toes, gingerly at first, but I can do it without pain amazingly enough. It doesn't hurt to stand on my toes on that foot, it hurts to stand flat footed though. Weird!!On the orthotics that I have...they're dark blue in color, and have a sticker on the back that says 'foot maxx' with my name and Walter Reed O&P Lab. So what should I say to my podiatry surgeon? I don't want to make him mad and tell him that I've been talking to other doctors, questioning his judgement or something. I'm just tired of it hurting to walk, it gives me no hope that I'll be able to run again, which was the whole point of having the surgery.

I have orthotics, they're about a year old now. Walter Reed (huge army hospital) makes them for us. I walked across a pad and they scanned my foot as I walked across it. I was thinking that I probably should make an appointment to get new ones made, I would imagine my right foot has changed since the surgery. The boots that I wear for work are made by Danner. They're combat boots. I don't think that I'll be able to convince my command to let me wear anything else. I'm at Andrews AFB, right outside of Clinton, Maryland.

Result number: 108

Message Number 234107

What’s wrong with America, and what will you do to change it?View ThreadPosted by marie on 8/08/07 at 22:30

That was one of the most important questions asked at the AFL-CIO Democratic Debate last night. Wow what a dramatic debate. The gloves where off.

If you didn't watch the debate you might want to watch this man's dramatic question and the audience that embracd him. He may well have upstaged every one of the candidates participating in the debate. His wife is 56 and not eligble for medicare.

http://blog.aflcio.org/2007/08/08/working-families-ask-whats-wrong-with-america/One of those union members, Steve Skvara, a disabled, retired steel worker from Indiana, posing a question to the candidates, drew huge applause and a standing ovation; and now, he is rightfully getting much media focus for his moving description of how, after working for decades at LTV Steel, the company cut his pension by one-third and abolished his health care coverage. Skvara broke down as he described being unable to pay for health care coverage for his wife who had devoted her life to him and their family. His question for the candidates?

Out of the limited pairs I have fit to patients, they have been as I measured with devices calibrated to orthopedic brands' specifications. My best guess without seeing your foot would be to go with the size you wear in Drew.

Thank you for your response. Do leather klogs offer good stability and pronation conrol? In the Brooks ariel, I wear the extra wide size. In most shoes, I wear 8 1/2 wide. Which footbead would be best for me? Do you know which line is the wider and which is the more slender. Right now, the only shoes that I can wear all day a work as a school based speech pathologist are brooks ariel, drew (wider toe box) and aravon (Katy). Would that information provide a pattern that may be useful in determining which shoes may be best for my plantar fasciitis? Would the German or Italian Klogs foot bed be best?

I started having plantar fascitis problems about two years ago. An ultra sound performed about 1 1/2 years ago, revealed pockets of inflamation up to 7.5 cm along the length of the tendon on the left foot and about 5 on the right foot. I went through stretching, taping, night splints, cortisone injections, custom orthotics, cam walker, of course good shoes, ESWT and Cryo. As long as I wear either my Brooks Ariel, Aravon Sandals or Drew shoes, the symptoms are fairly manageable. At night, I can not sleep without wearing something on my left foot. I have found that the kind of hard bottomed shoe that you wear over a cast works well. It is much lower profile than a splint or cam walker. My heel starts to throb and spasm if I do not wear something on my foot (even to bed). Why?

I also have no disc at the L-5 level and have severe bilateral patellofemoral syndrome and tricompartmental grade 3-4 arthritis and am holding off on a TKR.

In that line of work, on that kind of primary surface, there are several factors beyond fit that are important. There is absolutely no give in terrazzo, so having some element of cushioning in a shoe is vital. In addition to non-slip soling, having the soles sealed to protect against delamination would be a good benefit. I don't have any reservations about your Naot choice; however, there are others that offer specialty models for duty application. Of the brands I'll mention, please be sure top investigate which ones will do a better job matching your foot shape and functional requirements:

Klogs These have always been effective in the kind of work environment you have. Their standard construction is indestructible and orthotic friendly. They absorb shock well and have surprisingly good stability. They can also be ungodly hot. If you tend to be warm natured, that would be my most sincere caveat against this brand.

Spira Their Classic Walker absorbs shock better than almost any shoe in existence. That said, it is definitely not for everyone. There are fit and functional limitations for some people, so shop wisely. Although their soles are stamped as non-skid, I would classify them as slip resistant.

Standing Comfort This is an awesome duty shoe brand. They are made by Drew, so they share that brand's broad selection in last shapes and widths. They are completely orthotic friendly, most have double depth, and the standard insert is one of the better ones around. They can also be heavy. Their cushioned midsoles are completely encapsulated by a completely non-skid rubber sole. This makes them as durable as tanks, but also weighs close to the same.

Skechers They have been further improving their functional designs, and are now set to release duty specific models. I haven't had a chance to handle these yet, but am fully confident in their reliability.

That should get you a start.

Result number: 113

Message Number 233295

Retraction of Gionis not being licensed for DRX studyView ThreadPosted by oma z on 7/21/07 at 02:18

It has come to my attention, that even if you have been imprisoned for a few years for hiring people to severely assault your ex-wife and her boyfriend, and be convicted of multiple felonies from that assault, a doctor may still be able to hold a license in the state of California. So Gionis could very well have had his license during the time that Axiom's president claims Gionis did the study on the DRX (which according to Gibson was '2002 maybe.')

The information on the public California medical record is, Gionis was on probation until November 2002. So Mr. Gibson wasn't sure in his testimony when the study was done. 'Maybe' doesn't connote certainy. I had mistakenly posted 2001, so I guess I retract that too. '2002 maybe' was when Gionis did the study, but could it be 2001 maybe?

Sometimes I get confused when I read Gibson's depositions as he kind of 'takes the scenic route' to say what another person might say in one sentence. It took one page for him to admit Axiom didn't have a patent on the DRX in a March 2006 deposition. That was surprising especially when their websites, videos, marketing materials, Powerpoints, seminars, and DVD's mailed out to thousands of chiropractors claimed it was patented at the time.

I'll let you know what I find out on the Gionis thing. I know there is one clear cut oath that doctors take and that is, 'First do no harm.'

What do you guys think of someone being able to practice medicine with violent felony convictions. Oh wait, he didn't do anything violent. He only wrote checks. An orthopedic surgeon would know that to slice a tennis player's Achilles tendon (the boyfriend's) would pretty much mess them up for a long, long time, possibly never getting their game back.

What the heck. We all deserve a do over right? Just watch your backside._______________________________________________

Just so I don't get it wrong....it's just a copy and paste from the Calif State Records. So there maybe must not have been any violation of the Medical Practice Act.

Disciplinary Actions Taken by Other State or Federal Government No information available from this agency

Felony Convictions The information provided only includes felony convictions that are known to the Board. All felony convictions known to the Board are reviewed and administrative action is taken only if it is determined that a violation of the Medical Practice Act occurred. For more information regarding felony convictions, contact the court of jurisdiction listed below.

On the morning of October 3, 1988, Wayne and Luby attended an aerobics class in Corona del Mar. At approximately 11:30 a.m., they returned to Luby's residence in Newport Beach. Hintergardt and a man named Jeffrey Bouey were waiting. They approached Luby and Wayne as Luby and Wayne exited their car in the garage, and asked Luby if his name was Roger Luby. Luby said yes.

Suddenly, the men drew guns. When Luby asked if they were joking, Hintergardt said, 'This isn't no _______ joke,' and struck Luby on the head {Page 9 Cal.4th 1205} with his gun. Hintergardt threatened to kill Luby if he yelled or screamed. He forced Luby to the ground, holding the gun to his head. After handcuffing Luby's hands and ankles, Hintergardt repeatedly smashed Luby's face into the concrete floor, warning him not to move or scream. Hintergardt then severed Luby's right Achilles tendon with a knife, and attempted to do the same to the left tendon.

Meanwhile, Bouey held a gun to Wayne's head and forced her to the ground. When Hintergardt finished with Luby, he handcuffed Wayne's hands and feet. Hintergardt yelled at Wayne, then grabbed her hair and slammed her face into the concrete floor twice. Wayne felt her head split open and blood stream down her face. Hintergardt told her, 'You're _______ with the wrong people.' _____________________________________________________________________

(Doesn't this remind you of a scene from 'Goodfellows?'____________________________________________________________________

After Hintergardt and Bouey left, Wayne and Luby were taken to a hospital for medical treatment. Wayne required more than two dozen stitches for the wound to her head. Luby received stitches on his head and on his severed right Achilles tendon. He had to wear a full hip-to-ankle cast for three weeks, then a knee-to-ankle cast for some time after that. Even after months of therapy, Luby's right Achilles tendon felt dead and numb.

Result number: 114

Message Number 233044

Oh Wait A Minute......Pro-Choice Giuliani Leads With Catholic VotersView ThreadPosted by marie on 7/15/07 at 22:14

as does Senator Clinton. Catholics are a funny group you know. ;)

http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=51977The Pew Forum found that among likely Democratic voters, Hillary Clinton gains the most support among self-identified Catholics. But the poll found few significant differences between Catholic and Protestant respondents in their judgments on the leading Democratic candidates.

Among the Republican contenders, Giuliani drew the highest level of support among Catholics*. Nearly half-- 49%-- of the Catholic voters said that they were likely to support the former New York mayor, while Giuliani commanded only 30% 'likely' support among mainline Protestant respondents and 32% among Evangelical Protestants.

Result number: 115

Message Number 232822

Re: Cause of PF - question for the DrsView ThreadPosted by Amy on 7/11/07 at 15:57

Thank you for your response. Over the years, I have gone to the PT and tried knee brace and taping route for my patellofemoral syndrome. I did quad strengthening, calf stretching and IT band stretching exercises. My surgeon said that the groove on the back of the kneecap is shallow. This combined with the increased Q angle contributed to the patellofemoral syndrome. Unfortunately, I also have grade 3-4 tricompartmental arthritis in both knees. My knee is bone on bone in over 2/3 of the kneecap. We tried another round of PT before I had the proximal realignment. Two different physical therapists said that the lateral tracking, patella alta and tilt was so severe that the kneecap was hanging off of the edge of the trochlear groove and PT would not help without first having surgery.

I do overpronate. Over the years, the arches have fallen. It is not flat but definitely has changed over the years. I have worn custom orthotics which helped somewhat. I find that wearing a good sneaker (Brooks Ariel) and good shoes (Drew) that a pedorthist modified helps more than the orthotics.Thank you for your response. A fellow patellofemoral sufferer.....

Unfortunately, the proximal realignment has only been partially successful and the only other option is a TKR. This has been confirmed by 4 different knee surgeons. I am not ready to have a TKR yet as I am still able to work full time and do the normal errands. My knee symptoms wax and wane. About 1/2 of the time, I have to wear a Breg PTO knee brace to work but the other 1/2 I do not. I guess the big question is which condition exaccerbated which.

Also, for someone with my knee and L-5 (no disc left) problems, would MBT's be contraindicated. I am leary about 'destabalizing' my gait with the patellofemoral issues. As it is, I go through periods of time where my symptoms increase and I get muscle spasms up both sides of the knee cap and pulling and a sharp pain up the front of the thigh.

It would be wise to ask your doctor how much pitch he prefers for you, rather than the total amount of heel height. There are shoes with the prescribed height, but only about 1/4' pitch. Likewise, there are shoes meeting the heel requirement with well over an inch of pitch. Both ends of that spectrum would likely create more problems than a solution. Also remember that the more the heel is pitched, the more the heel is inverted, and the less your foot is capable of absorbing shock.

The brands I am listing here have models which meet the things you ask, but I feel it's important for you to get more information from your doctor on what he wants you to obtain. In addition, not every shoe from each of these brands will likely fit your foot well, due to differences in last shapes and sole profiles. I encourage you to shop somewhere with a knowledgeable fitting staff.

Brands that have models possessing a 1 1/2' heel as well as adequate shock absorption and stability include:

Yes, I know. I did think it was the Foot Surgery board, as I said. My mistake. Anyway, that's what I thought, and it seemed to me that the rules applying to the Doctor board could well be applied to the Surgery board. I still think so. When Dr Wander pointed out that it was the TTS board, I immediately withdrew the suggestion.

'I don't think you are giving posters enough credit that they will use common sense when it comes to their personal care issues. Obviously Julie, you disagree, so it is just a difference of opinion between us.'

I do disagree. Perhaps when you've read posts here as long as I have your opinion may change.

'the internet is a mechanism for information sharing'

Indeed it is. But as I'm sure you know, the information shared is not always accurate or useful. Sharing is not always caring. Particularly not in matters bearing upon health and medical issues. That's why I feel as I do about such message boards. I think they can do more harm than good..

Sorry to hear about your flux of various problems. Treating each of these individually is usually very successful. Treating them all in one person can obviously be a challenge. One thing I can say with a fair amount of certainty is that a standard OTC footbed likely won't solve your problems, no matter what kind of footwear they are inserted. Here are some things to consider:

1. There are plenty of depth shoes that do not necessarily look like something an octogenarian would wear, many of which will accommodate a 2E width forefoot. Selecting from these brands and styles will be determined greatly by also evaluating your heel and instep dimensions. You mentioned Apex, but you may find something you like better in their Lenex, Ariya and Essence collections. New Balance, Drew, Natural Step, Saucony, PW Minor and Brooks are just a few of the other brands which may be a good match for you.

With your fibromyalgia you will also benefit from the quality shanking these brands typically employ. Reducing torsional motion that shanks provide tends to go a long way in keeping the connective tissue more free from pain.

2. Most people with the kinds of conditions you describe do not do well with typical functional orthotic designs. Trying to create too much functional control aggravates the tissue leading to fibromyalgia symptoms suffered by these individuals. Creating an orthotic design that concentrates on full plantar contact and soft contact surfaces help. Also creating an accommodative cast, rather than open chain casting techniques, helps quite a bit. You might find success with some sort of hybrid construction, which places an emphasis on maintaining a supportive base structure (polypropelene or XPE shell, as examples) covered with cushioned bi or trilaminates.

3. Yes, custom sandals do still exist. Options include inserting custom orthotics into sandals with deep, removable inlays (i.e. Finn Comfort, Kumfs, Drew, Helle Comfort, Bite, etc), or having the entire sandal custom crafted. When I make these, the footbed portion has the same benefits (and usually very similar construction) as a custom orthotic. The upper can be made to the graphic and fit requirements of the patient, or transferred from an existing sandal.

I just dispensed a Birkenstock Boston crafted this way, yesterday. The patient had done well with a Birk clog with a urethane molded outsole which was fitted with a custom diabetic insert, but we wanted to use the versatility and durable reconstructive qualities of Birk's classic models.

If you're in this area why not give Dr. Andrew Gerken at Newport Orthopedic Institute a call. He specializes in foot and ankle and could possibly be of help while you wait for your tests.

Result number: 120

Message Number 231077

Re: So what are we going for in Iraq?View ThreadPosted by john h on 6/04/07 at 13:24

Is not Gas a weapon of mass destruction? Saddam used gas on Iran and his own people. What were all the Israelis doing with gas mask when missiles were headed their way. Why were our troops issued gas mask? Where did the gas go? It does not take long to make it or destroy it. Anyway, WMD to me was a side issue. The U.S. wanted retribution for 9/11 and that is why the Congress approved the war in the first place. It is easy to look back now and say the war was all about WMD's. It was not. It was much about bringing down a madman who admired and used some of the methods of Hitler. People now look back and wonder why in Gulf War I we did not march on into Bagdad? The fact is our public did not want to continue the war. I remember it clearly. Our public has a great view in hindsight but is very fickle. With the constant beat of the press about body counts they easily can turn the public into anti war activist or war mongers. The news is presented to us today almost exactly like it was in Vietnam and will bring the same result. Only when we are hit with an unimaginable attack will the public perhaps recognize terror and the danger it imposes to our nation. When someone walks into their local super market and a bomb goes off attached to a suicide bomber may we get the message. We all should get a chance to live in Israel for a month. As to Iraq the three major groups have hated each others for centuries. How does anyone expect them to suddenly become friends and share the wealth. They are blowing each other up as we speak. If we want to take this thing back far enough then lets go back to WWI when England drew lines in the sand and created a nation of diverse people. Should they have had the foresight to see what the consequences would be down the road just as we should have the foresight to see what would happen to Iraq when we invaded? I do not think people are that brilliant and have that kind of vision. Our great vision is in hindsight. Basically Islam has fought with other religions for thousands of years. Why should it change now? As a matter of fact it has not changed. We are just in a continuation of the Crusades only high tech. We are hampered by trying to fight and being PC while our enemies have no PC and no moral values equivalent to ours.

Result number: 121

Message Number 230629

Re: top foot specialist or clinics in the USAView ThreadPosted by David G. Wedemeyer, DC on 5/26/07 at 23:58

Velma Drs. Andrew Gerken and Alexander Tischler are both excellent physicians who specialize in the foot and ankle. I know Dr. Gerken tends to treat chronic and difficult cases and every patient that I have referred to him has been very pleased. Lory is his front office person. No referral is necessary but you can tell him Dr. Wedemeyer directed you to him.

www.newportortho.com

Result number: 122

Message Number 230291

Re: Question for Jeremy about Drew shoes View ThreadPosted by Amy on 5/21/07 at 23:22

Are the shoes supportive for someone with plantar fascitis?

Result number: 123

Message Number 230252

Re: Question for Jeremy about Drew shoes View ThreadPosted by Jeremy L on 5/21/07 at 13:43

The Lilly is a shoe within Drew's Footfriends collection. These are comfort oriented sandals and other open-air shoes that have a combination of deeper than average depth and a very soft top layer insert. None of the other Drew categories have all the build specifications of Footfriends, so duplicating the feel you have in totally enclosed footwear might be a challenge. Also, not all Footfriends use the same sole unit as the Lilly, so there are likely some within the collection that won't feel quite as good.

The best overall matches to the Lilly are:

EmilyMillieTori

Result number: 124

Message Number 230209

Question for Jeremy about Drew shoes View ThreadPosted by Theresa on 5/20/07 at 22:03

I recently bought a pair of Drew shoes called 'Lilly'. They are more comfortable and any other Drew shoe I have bought. Could you recommend any shoes similar to these?Thanks

Result number: 125Searching file 22

Message Number 229424

Re: another insomniacs rantView ThreadPosted by Julie on 5/09/07 at 14:50

Ralph

I took Dr Wander to task for scolding you and for not answering the woman's question (you may not have noticed this). He deleted the entire thread - I believe that was not because you posted to Dr Goldstein but because he took offense at my criticism. I could be wrong, but that is the conclusion I drew.

I support Dr Wander's efforts to keep the Ask the Doctors board for doctors to answer patients' questions (see my other post to Dorothy and John about this). I think it's important that people be given ACCURATE answers by medical professionals, and that does sometimes mean throwing the baby (like your perfectly accurate post) out with the bath water. But I agree with you that he has been going about fulfilling his role in an abrupt and sometimes discourteous manner..

I don't have a link. This comes from a Chicago news source. I'll cut it to the required 4 lines:

This from a Chicago news source:

CHICAGO - A racy billboard proclaiming 'Life's short. Get a divorce.' was removed from its downtown perch on Tuesday, only one week after the steamy advertisement was posted.

Bookended by pictures of a partially clothed man and woman, the ad for lawyers Corri Fetman and Kelly Garland drew scores of complaints from neighbors and other attorneys who said its content reflected poorly on their profession.

...said Alderman Burton Natarus. 'It has nothing to do with content or anything else. They did not have a permit and they were ordered to take it down.'

Fetman and Garland say they're upset the sign was removed from the posh Gold Coast neighborhood. 'They ripped our billboard down without due process,' Fetman said. 'We own that art. I feel violated.' Despite its brief run, the sign has been good for business. Since it was posted last week, the two women said calls to their law firm have gone up dramatically.

A racy billboard proclaiming 'Life's short. Get a divorce.' was removed from its downtown perch on Tuesday, only one week after the steamy advertisement was posted.

Bookended by pictures of a partially clothed man and woman, the ad for lawyers Corri Fetman and Kelly Garland drew scores of complaints from neighbors and other attorneys who said its content reflected poorly on their profession.

City officials said their decision to jettison the sign had nothing to do with the tan and sculpted torsos or the salacious message sandwiched between them.

'I called the building inspector and told him to do his job and he did,' said Alderman Burton Natarus. 'It has nothing to do with content or anything else. They did not have a permit and they were ordered to take it down.'

Fetman and Garland say they're upset the sign was removed from the posh Gold Coast neighborhood.

'They ripped our billboard down without due process,' Fetman said. 'We own that art. I feel violated.'

Despite its brief run, the sign has been good for business. Since it was posted last week, the two women said calls to their law firm have gone up dramatically.

1. Straight lasted shoes perform better for you than semi-curve or semi-straight. This provides more displacement for the navicular and cuneiform bones.

2. You need something soft underfoot, just as much as you need torsional support.

The Brooks Ariel inlay in made of dual density polyurethane, so it's both very durable and soft. It also has a more restrictive arch structure than what came in either your Merrell's or Drew's. The reason it doesn't feel overly aggressive is because of the medial displacement described above. Your Finn's also provide similar displacement, but it has a fairly firm cork inlay. I would certainly try using the Brooks inlay when wearing either the Drew's or Finn's.

It also seems reasonable to suggest that you could be a good candidate for a custom molded silicon/visco gel insert. The most reliable technique for creating these was developed by Karl Reickens. Even beyond his fairly recent passing they are still making these at his old practice, as well as holding monthly pedorthic classes in their manufacture. More can be seen at www.footcomforthealth.com. They may also be able to direct you to someone close who can perform this service.

As for sandals, I would certainly consider Kumfs. Their standard sandal last has both a similar heel pitch to other shoes you are having success and a straighter last shape. They use a much softer cork inlay (co-molded with rubber) than Finn uses. They are also removeable, so you can use other OTS inserts or custom devices. Look for their M sandals on www.kumfs.com. The M stands for the sandal name starting with an 'M'.

Result number: 129

Message Number 229178

Jeremy please solve this shoe riddleView ThreadPosted by Amy on 5/06/07 at 03:34

Pleas help me figure a pattern!!!!!!! I have been dealing with plantar fasciitis symptoms varying from a two to an eight for the pst 18 months. I have only found consistent pain reduction/relief in the following footwear

I would like to be able to wear more variety in my summer shoes .....especially wear sandals. Given the above shoe selection, can you see any obvious similarities that could suggest some shoe models to explore? What features should I look for? Avoid? Fins feel good for about an hour and then the heel starts to hurt. Merrell glade feels nice on the heel but the arch begins to hurt after about 40 minutes and then the heel follows suite.

I did make that assumption, and I apologize. In addition to HS Trask and PW Minor (especially their Contour Last within their Xtra Depth Collection), here are some others to consider:

Bostonian (some of the Strada Collection)Clarks (those styles still using their traditional last)EccoDrew (Pedic 66 last, with an achilles notch in the collar)Dunham (Windsor and Burlington Collections)Sandro Moscoloni

Result number: 131

Message Number 228142

FDA Licenses First U.S. Vaccine for Humans Against Avian Influenza View ThreadPosted by marie on 4/19/07 at 19:29

sanofi pasteur has made the first hurdle in getting it's vaccine made available to the public. The announcement is at their website below.

http://www.news-medical.net/?id=23767'The threat of an influenza pandemic is, at present, one of the most significant public health issues our nation and world faces,' said Andrew C. von Eschenbach, M.D., Commissioner of Food and Drugs. 'The approval of this vaccine is an important step forward in our protection against a pandemic.'

I'm in the Army, and I understand what a pain in the butt the military medical system can be. I no longer go to the base hospital because of all the red tape and crappy doctors Tricare allows us to see. Last Friday, I had an appointment with the VA, and they treated me like a king. They drew 14 tubes of blood to see why my entire body is in pain and they have appointments for me to see an othopedic doctor, podiatrist, phyical therapist, and a shrink to make sure I don't have PTSD.

You should call your local VA and set up an appointment. Tricare has the lowest reimbursement rate of all insurers according to a Navy Commander I spoke with and most good doctors can't treat us without losing money. That is why we get inexperienced doctors that haven't seen the kind of trouble we have.

jim

Result number: 133

Message Number 227807

orthotics squeak solutionView ThreadPosted by Drew on 4/15/07 at 12:42

This works wonders:

Rub Un-petroleum jelly (vaseline might also work) along the edges of your orthotics, and presto! No squeak! I've been liberated.

Result number: 134

Message Number 227774

Re: Conservative BYU Protests an Invitation To Cheney to speak at commencement.....View ThreadPosted by larrym on 4/15/07 at 06:03

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/11/us/11byu.html?_r=1&ref=us&oref=slogin The problem is this is a morally dubious man, said Andrew Christensen, a 22-year-old Republican from Salt Lake City. It’s challenging the morality and integrity of this institution.

Said Christensen as he ate at Chucky Cheeses with one of his four 14 year old wives lol, get it!!!

But really, wow, found some kids at a university that want to 'stand up to the man' how unique. I wonder what he would have said about Haliburton if they asked

Result number: 135

Message Number 227767

Conservative BYU Protests an Invitation To Cheney to speak at commencement.....View ThreadPosted by marie on 4/14/07 at 21:17

Conservatives know when something is amiss and it's very amiss in the United States of America under the current administration. It's very interesting and hopeful that there is an ongoing protest at one of the most conservative universities in the country. Apparently they would prefer a leader give address them at graduation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/11/us/11byu.html?_r=1&ref=us&oref=slogin The problem is this is a morally dubious man, said Andrew Christensen, a 22-year-old Republican from Salt Lake City. It’s challenging the morality and integrity of this institution.

Students and faculty at Brigham Young — a private university sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — are expected to adhere to an honor code, which emphasizes being honest, living a chaste and virtuous life, abstaining from alcohol and tobacco, using clean language and following church doctrines. They are also required to follow strict modesty guidelines for grooming and attire.

In the two weeks since the university announced that Mr. Cheney would be the speaker at the commencement on April 26, hundreds of students have attended respectful and quiet campus demonstrations about his presence, and some 3,600 students and alumni had signed petitions by Tuesday afternoon seeking a more appropriate replacement speaker.

A wrong assumption that most people immediately jump to is that a comedian or talk show guy/girl who makes some comment about race is automatically a racist. These people do what they do for money and to get laughs or to be outrageous. I have sure heard a lot worse remarks than Imus that never drew such outrage. Is it ok for an African American to belittle or make racist comments about other African Americans? It happens all the time and some of the comedians are known for just that type of humor. How about Al Sharpton and his comments about New York Jews? What about the lyrics to the current RAP music. Where is the outrage? I grew up in a 1st generation Italian community. As teens we often called our Italian buddies Daggos on occasion and they called us some names I want even repeat. We were all friends and our name calling was the way you expressed friendship. We are much to quick to label people racist with the new PC that has become part of our culture. Is Imus a racist? Is Al Sharpton a racist? I have no idea as you cannot judge a man/woman on one comment. How about Senator Byrd who was once a member of the KKK? Clearly he was once a racist. Is he now? Who knows? Is there any of you out there that has not made a remark that if taken out of context and the situation would cause you to be labeled a racist. As one who grew up in the early 40's I have made racial remarks to try and be funny. I am not nor have ever been a racist. I have both white and black people I do not care for but it is not because of their race.

A few years ago we had a series of shootings and robberies in parking lots in our large malls. My wife and I had gone to a movie at the mall in the late afternoon. We had to park in a distant parking space as the lot was near full. After the movie it was dark. When we exited the mall to go to our car the car was all by itself way out from the building. There was a single car parked next to mine. I could see that there was one person in the car just sitting there. Since we had just had some shootings and I had my wife with me we decided to walk around in the mall as it looked strange for a car to be parked next to mine with hundreds of empty spaces next to the mall. After 30 minutes we again exited the building and the man was still parked next to mine and still just sitting in the car. I could not make out his features and did not know or care what his race was. Just a concern for safety. I asked a black security guard to escort us to our car. When we got to the car the man exited his car and went into a rage calling us racist. I apologized and tried to explain I did not even know he was black and that there had been some recent shootings and robberies on he lot. He behavior became more erratic and the security guard called for backup. Three more guards ran to the scene and they told me to get in my car and get out of there. I do not know what the results were but would do the same thing if faced with that situation. If I had not had my wife I would have gone to the car. The man said he had seen us come out of he mall twice and we were racist because he was black and we called a security guard for escort. No PC here in my mind just being prudent. He could have been white or oriental I would still have taken precautions given the situation and history of the parking lot.

I contributed to one of the many discussions about Hope some time ago, and withdrew because it was made clear to me (by Hope, amongst others) that my thoughts were unwelcome. I'm stepping in now (probably unwisely) to tell you that I agree entirely with your assessment of this situation. It has been obvious to me that Hope is an extremely manipulative person. (That is not to say that I'm not sorry about her pain and for the predicament she is in, just that I can see how difficult she makes it for anyone to help her.) She won't tolerate other people's natural emotions and responses, and habitually retreats into baby language and 'you don't like me' whenever any of her friends shows the slightest sign of impatience with her. You say that 'according to Hope, when Scott gets angry with her it only made her wants to eat less.' That is manipulative behaviour. One can only imagine Scott's helplessness in the situation- a helplessness she has inflicted upon him.

I understand just why you find it difficult to engage in 'chit chat' with her when she is doing all she can - not to put to fine a point on it - to kill herself, and why your relationship is strained. Your instincts are sound: it couldn't be otherwise. For what it's worth, I believe you are absolutely right to refuse to communicate with Hope's lawyers. It is not for people Hope has 'met' on an internet forum to take responsibility for her.

I wish Hope well, and I hope her family is able, finally, to take the responsibility for her that is theirs. I hope she will let them. She apparently had a close call this morning, and I hope it has brought her closer to allowing the people who are close to her to take that responsibility..

Result number: 138

Message Number 226693

IS NERVE DECOMPRESSION SURGERY HELPFULLView ThreadPosted by Dr.Goldstein on 4/03/07 at 18:15

While some have touted surgical decompression as a possible treatment option for diabetic sensorimotor polyneuropathy (DPN), authors of a recent Diabetes Care commentary have challenged the validity of this procedure, calling it an unproven modality based on flawed hypotheses. The authors of the commentary note that the use of surgical decompression for DPN is based on several hypotheses including: signs and symptoms being caused by multiple nerve entrapments; that such entrapments can be diagnosed solely with the Tinel sign; that surgical release of the nerves corrects DPN; and that specialized training is required in order to identify these patients and perform surgical decompression procedures. Let me state very clearly that there is no evidence whatsoever from any randomized trials that (surgical decompression) is a treatment that should be suggested for DPN, emphasizes Andrew J.M. Boulton, MD, FRCP, a co-author of the Diabetes Care commentary and a Professor of Medicine at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom.

In regard to diabetic neuropathy in the foot, a recent commentary in Diabetes Care challenges the idea that surgical decompression can be effective in treating diabetic polyneuropathy. (Photo courtesy of Babak Baravarian, DPM)

In the commentary, the authors say the aforementioned hypotheses may have spawned an entire industry but are fundamentally flawed. In regard to distal neuropathy, the commentary authors say it is due to progressive axonal loss and entrapment cannot explain sensory or motor symptoms above the anatomic levels of the entrapped nerves. They also note that people with diabetes have a small incidence of peripheral nerve entrapment. As for the Tinel sign, the authors say it is not well standardized and lacks specificity and sensitivity. They also note that the Tinel sign was originally discussed within the realm of nerve regeneration, not nerve entrapment, and is more of a subjective test as opposed to electrodiagnostic studies, an objective diagnostic tool for assessing nerve function.

Assessing The Current Literature And The Need For Further ResearchThe commentary also notes that in the American Academy of Neurology’s review of evidence-based literature on surgical decompression for DPN, it found only one prospective trial. Accordingly, the Academy rated surgical decompression as an unproven treatment based on the current evidence, according to the commentary authors. Only well-controlled, randomized, double-masked, sham-procedure, controlled clinical trials will allow us to know whether these surgeries are safe and effective for this indication. (This is) the same standard any drug for diabetic peripheral neuropathy would have to meet, argue the authors of the Diabetes Care commentary. Dr. Boulton notes that randomized control trials have supported various treatments for relieving the pain associated with diabetic neuropathy. These treatments include pregabalin (Lyrica, Pfizer), gabapentin (Neurontin, Pfizer) and duloxetine (Cymbalta, Eli Lilly). However, Dr. Boulton says optimal glycemic control is the only prevention that might affect the natural history of DPN. As stated in this article and in the previous technical review published in 2004, there are no proven pathogenetic treatments that influence the natural history of diabetic neuropathy aside from tight glycemic control, maintains Dr. Boulton, a Visiting Professor of Medicine within the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at the University of Miami School of Medicine. Where should future research lead? The commentary notes that researchers should conduct pilot trials to determine whether there is justification to conduct phase 3 studies. The commentary authors believe the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) should conduct such trials due to the widespread application of these unproven surgical procedures among Medicare patients. The commentary authors also support further research into the causes of DPN.

I think my analogy is still better. Eyeglasses are orthotics as are foot orthotics.

An orthotic is a device to assist a part of the body as compared to a prosthetic which replaces a part of the body, like a glass eye.

You misunderstood my saying nobody ever really recovers from PF (I don’t think I said it that way, doesn’t sound like something I would say—at least that way), but assuming I did, I meant that because of our alignment characteristics, we are always vulnerable to re-occurrences of our present problem as well as new (like knee, hip or low back pain—as those problems are predicated on the same underlying cause as your PF) That would be especially true if one recovers from PF and starts to walk around again without their orthotics.

PF can still re-occur even with orthotics, as our pronation flexibility increases as the health of our tissues improve. So my comparison is that orthotics only work when they are being used. If one wears glasses and takes them off, their vision is out of focus again .

If you remove your foot orthotics, you allow the alignment characteristics to mechanicaly be vulnerable again. The difference between the two is that you can see the difference with glasses. With foot orthotics because it is an inflammatory process it takes time to feel the difference again.

Anyone can improve some strength to the intrinsic and extrinsic muscles involved in locomotion, both passively and actively. But you failed to understand that pronation is a dynamic shock absorber of our locomotion. Without the assist of an orthotic, the mechanics of our active alignment weakens our muscles.

As for pronation running barefoot, you’re mistaken about everything you said (stick to what you know). Pronation DOES occur (just not as great a range of motion) while you are on the balls of your feet, in addition sooner or later you have to get off the balls of your feet to walk (unless you tip toe everywhere) and then the pronatory forces are more dynamic as compared to when you are on the balls of your feet.

You’ve gotten better despite all this, you’ve been lucky. You are in the minority that has.

I talked to Dr. Kiper a few months ago, since I was somewhat interested in trying out the orthotics he is pushing. I was completely stunned by many of the things he had to say.

I am also of the view that going barefoot is quite healthy for our feet. Why? Because, after having PF four times over 20 years, I tried barefoot running, and ended up with strong healthy feet. I was able to run 4 miles or more, on PAVEMENT, while barefoot, and suffered no injuries at all.

I told Dr. Kiper that I could see the possible benefit of wearing orthotics while the PF injury is most severe, so that the injury can recover somewhat. He gave a completely ludicrous analogy--'do people who wear eyeglasses eventually stop needing eyeglasses? Do their eyes get better due to the eyeglasses'? I stopped him at that point, and said that he was trying to BS someone who has worked for decades as an optical engineer. The analogy is completely useless.

A better analogy might be to compare orthotics to the casting of a broken bone. But after a cast is removed, a physical therapist will push a patient to strengthen the area by weight-bearing exercise, correct?

Dr. Kiper also claimed that nobody ever really recovers from PF. He would probably claim that my recent, and 5th case, of PF was proof of this. Well, this last case of PF was in my RIGHT foot! All previous cases of PF were in my left foot.

While the PF pain was still present, I tried an experiment a few weeks ago, and began barefoot running again. I am able to run several miles barefoot now, and my PF pain is almost completely gone.

Do I naturally pronate? Yes, and I've trained my feet to be stronger, and I avoid pronation by not letting my feet relax into this position. And pronation is a meaningless term when you're running barefoot--since you land on the balls of the feet, lightly touch the heel down, then return to the balls of the feet, you can't even pronate at all while running this way!

After 20+ years of accepting the claims of podiatrists, who wanted me to always walk and run in some kind of orthotic, I now use no orthotics at all, and my feet are healthy and getting stronger every day.

We evolved as barefoot runners. Why do people think that we need some chunk of plastic under our foot to have healthy feet?

I don't mean to be rude, but I'm literally shocked at the things I read in your posts. This is not a simple matter of conflicting opinions; your posts contains an enormous amount of minsinformation and frankly reek of salesmanship. I don't mean to be inflammatory but there is simply no way for me to respond other than in criticizm.

I'm not so much bothered by your almost arbitrary dismissal of barefoot walking/running as your zealous promotion of orthotics.

Your discussion of pronation is an absolute molestation of basic human anatomy and biomechanics. The claim that every single person pronates excessively due to natural poor alignment is wholly unsupportable, lacking any basis in science whatsoever. No-one has ever identified what degree of pronation is excessive (with respect to running) in anything other than arbitrary terms, so it is not possible to state definitively that any individual over-pronates, much less that EVERYONE does so.

I am not implying that there is no such thing as excess pronation or that certain injuries due not occur for this reason, but to suggest that all runners pronate excessively and that everyone should use orthotics by default is beyond ridiculous. In my opinion this view betrays a very serious ignorance of human biomechanics.

To my knowledge, no published study has ever demonstrated that orthotics are effective at preventing running injuries, and I’m absolutely certain that no study has shown that orthotics improve race times. So you are essentially recommending a MEDICAL TREATMENT to everyone who runs on the basis of sheer inference and assumptions pulled out of thin air.

orthotics constitute a form of medical intervention just like prescription medications do, and medical treatments should not be administered to people who don’t need them. Saying that all runners should wear orthotics is like saying that all runners should take CELEBREX daily to prevent the normal muscular soreness associated with exercise.

BAREFOOTIN’

Dr Andrews,

Frankly I don’t blame your response regarding my post, but it’s not your fault. This is the paradigm you’re a part of.

I told Jeremy the same thing, you’ve just not had an opportunity to work with theSDO. You’re therefore limited in your paradigm.

My philosophies and how I approach orthotic therapy is new technology. Of course there’s no supportable evidence. The clinical research should be done, but I don’t have time. I can help you do it.

Studies that show this and that have not been able to be demonstrated because of the inconsistency in orthotic control with what our technology is today.

This is what separates theSDO from traditional orthotics. TheSDO uses science to make the theory of biomechanics work.

A traditional orthotic is only based on theory .

Result number: 143

Message Number 226413

Dr Andrews---RE your last post to me View ThreadPosted by Dr KIper on 3/31/07 at 19:56

I don't mean to be rude, but I'm literally shocked at the things I read in your posts. This is not a simple matter of conflicting opinions; your posts contains an enormous amount of minsinformation and frankly reek of salesmanship. I don't mean to be inflammatory but there is simply no way for me to respond other than in criticizm.

I'm not so much bothered by your almost arbitrary dismissal of barefoot walking/running as your zealous promotion of orthotics.

Your discussion of pronation is an absolute molestation of basic human anatomy and biomechanics. The claim that every single person pronates excessively due to natural poor alignment is wholly unsupportable, lacking any basis in science whatsoever. No-one has ever identified what degree of pronation is excessive (with respect to running) in anything other than arbitrary terms, so it is not possible to state definitively that any individual over-pronates, much less that EVERYONE does so.

I am not implying that there is no such thing as excess pronation or that certain injuries due not occur for this reason, but to suggest that all runners pronate excessively and that everyone should use orthotics by default is beyond ridiculous. In my opinion this view betrays a very serious ignorance of human biomechanics.

To my knowledge, no published study has ever demonstrated that orthotics are effective at preventing running injuries, and I’m absolutely certain that no study has shown that orthotics improve race times. So you are essentially recommending a MEDICAL TREATMENT to everyone who runs on the basis of sheer inference and assumptions pulled out of thin air.

orthotics constitute a form of medical intervention just like prescription medications do, and medical treatments should not be administered to people who don’t need them. Saying that all runners should wear orthotics is like saying that all runners should take CELEBREX daily to prevent the normal muscular soreness associated with exercise.

BAREFOOTIN’

Dr Andrews,

Frankly I don’t blame your response regarding my post, but it’s not your fault. This is the paradigm you’re a part of.

I told Jeremy the same thing, you’ve just not had an opportunity to work with the SDO. You’re therefore limited in your paradigm.

My philosophies and how I approach orthotic therapy is new technology. Of course there’s no supportable evidence. The clinical research should be done, but I don’t have time. I can help you do it.

Studies that show this and that have not been able to be demonstrated because of the inconsistency in orthotic control with what our technology is today.

This is what separates the SDO from traditional orthotics. The SDO uses science to make the theory of biomechanics work.

Good or bad, I accept your criticism on the content of my posts, if you have something to offer or disagree with, jump right in. But, if it irks you that these posts occur, then don’t read them.

I’m here on this board for the patients as I presume you are. So if I feel the patient also can read about the content and possibly relate to the patient known as AnneS(others coming) and if they want to ask questions or comment, then it’s for them to decide.

The trial for me is not about whether 3 patients got better in 3 months—BIG DEAL!

If I’m putting my name and work on the line, online, then I want the patient to see if why or why not it worked or didn’t work.

Because none of the trial patients is going to be better by 3 months.

The intent for me is to get them on the road to recovery. This process can take several years to get 100% better, I’ve got 3 months to do that..

My philosophies and how I approach orthotic therapy may be different from you may be because you haven’t had the opportunity to work with the SDO—that’s just my opinion, but this is new technology. I would think you’d be more open minded and interested in seeing what it’s about. Let me add that I believe there is still place for the traditional orthotic in certain circumstances.

I feel it’s time that my profession comes up with something better—If I'm right that’s progress isn’t it?

As a profession, biomechanics is our 1st priority because it’s just like orthopedics for the whole body. It’s the topic of podiatry’s conversation. Things have changed in some of our thinking since Root. It hasn’t been enough.

For me it’s not just an orthotic for Medical Intervention like Dr Andrews suggested.

For me, it’s about educating people that the real health benefit is prevention.Making the SDO for children beginning around 10 years of age is like making braces for kids teeth. It’s helping the structure of the foot to grow better and healthier with less or minimal risk of foot problems as they age.

Now, it may just be theory to you, but I know I can do that with the silicone orthotic.

Result number: 145

Message Number 226363

Re: TO DR ANDREWS--RE: ORTHOTICS AS A HEALTH BENEFIT View ThreadPosted by Dr. Z on 3/31/07 at 07:23

I grew up in the Dupont Area ( Delaware/South Jersey) . Dupont would pay out of their pockets regardless of wether insurance coverage had the benefit.. If I remember Conn General was the insurance policy for safety shoes, orthosis for all preventive foot care. I still remember my father was the podiatric consultant and this is going back 50 plus years. Dupont was so far ahead of their time. There were MANY old time podiatrists that explained the importance of prevention to local industry. What ever happen to this ?

Result number: 146

Message Number 226362

Re: TO DR ANDREWS--RE: ORTHOTICS AS A HEALTH BENEFIT View ThreadPosted by Dr. Z on 3/31/07 at 07:23

I grew up in the Dupont Area ( Delaware/South Jersey) . Dupont would pay out of their pockets regardless of wether insurance coverage had the benefit.. If I remember Conn General was the insurance policy for safety shoes, orthosis for all preventive foot care. I still remember my father was the podiatric consultant and this is going back 50 plus years. Dupont was so far ahead of their time. There were MANY old time podiatrists that explained the importance of prevention to local industry. What ever happen to this ?

Result number: 147

Message Number 226361

Re: TO DR ANDREWS--RE: ORTHOTICS AS A HEALTH BENEFIT View ThreadPosted by Dr. Z on 3/31/07 at 07:23

I grew up in the Dupont Area ( Delaware/South Jersey) . Dupont would pay out of their pockets regardless of wether insurance coverage had the benefit.. If I remember Conn General was the insurance policy for safety shoes, orthosis for all preventive foot care. I still remember my father was the podiatric consultant and this is going back 50 plus years. Dupont was so far ahead of their time. There were MANY old time podiatrists that explained the importance of prevention to local industry. What ever happen to this ?

Result number: 148

Message Number 226360

Re: TO DR ANDREWS--RE: ORTHOTICS AS A HEALTH BENEFIT View ThreadPosted by Dr. Z on 3/31/07 at 07:20

I grew up in the Dupont Area ( Delaware/South Jersey) . Dupont would pay out of their pockets regardless of wether insurance coverage had the benefit.. If I remember Conn General was the insurance policy for safety shoes, orthosis for all preventive foot care. I still remember my father was the podiatric consultant and this is going back 50 plus years. Dupont was so far ahead of their time. There were MANY old time podiatrists that explained the importance of prevention to local industry. What ever happen to this ?

Result number: 149

Message Number 226340

Re: TO DR ANDREWS--RE: ORTHOTICS AS A HEALTH BENEFIT View ThreadPosted by Dr KIper on 3/30/07 at 21:01

I’m not sure what you mean about who is ignoring basic knowledge of biomechanics and common sense ?

Common sense tells me that, the beauty of any orthotic is that it is a conservative treatment and if it’s hurting, not working, making things worse or whatever, the patient can simply remove it and everything goes back to the way it was, resulting in no permanent damage.

If the health expert at Dupont made such a request from you, maybe he did his research and came to the conclusion, it was a health benefit in the form of prevention rather than cure.

Result number: 150

Message Number 226317

Re: TO DR ANDREWS--RE: ORTHOTICS AS A HEALTH BENEFIT View ThreadPosted by Dr. Ed on 3/30/07 at 16:32

Dr. Kiper:

Years ago I received a call from an industrial health expert at a Dupont chemical factory. He made the statement that 'all of our employees at the factory need orthotics.' My reply was that I felt that considering the fact that the factory workers were standing on hard surfaces for long hours that almost all could benefit from some type of supportive device. Those with significant biomechanical deficits may need custom orthotics, others, a good pre-fab device such as Superfeet and yet others a well cushioned insole and that a screening may help determine which employees should be directed to which variety of device. The human foot is not adapted to withstand being on hard surfaces such as concrete for long hours especially with the addition of some heavy lifting. I would consider supportive devices to be protective under such conditions. Some may argue that there is a lack of double blinded peer reviewed studies to back up such an assertion; but, in doing so are ignoring basic knowledge of biomechanics and common sense.Dr. Ed

Result number: 151

Message Number 226304

TO DR ANDREWS--RE: ORTHOTICS AS A HEALTH BENEFIT View ThreadPosted by Dr KIper on 3/30/07 at 14:48

Because perfect feet are very rare, almost anyone can benefit from orthotics. They can prevent and alleviate many of the common foot complications that cause discomfort in otherwise healthy people. (Podiatry Forum—2/14/03).

I have contacted Dr Orien, but he cannot access that paper he presented.

I am surprised and flattered that you would feel that my opinion alone reflects the perception that ALL podiatrists are orthotic salesmen.

When you state that MOST patients who show up at my office have no need for an orthotic, here I think you may be presenting bad medical information. Most patients who (used to show up) at my office did NEED orthotics. Their lower extremity pains were from in MOST cases bio-mechanical origin. Conditions requiring surgery, the underlying cause was in MOST cases bio-mechanical. Podiatry is a profession that deals primarily with underlying bio-mechanical conditions that manifest themselves primarily through the aging process.

Is it your opinion that a person with normal foot structure and no glaring mechanical problems cannot become abnormal? Many runners today are coming into the office (and I get a few too) without medical problems and getting fit for orthotics, because they see the sense in what they perceive to be preventative medicine .

I don’t know you, but if you are a DPM, are you rejecting those patients because there are no glaring deformities?

What is true is that my opinion was not scientific, but rather empirical and it was also true that what I said is NOT inside the mainstream medical thought .

To say that alignment MIGHT have an effect on the vascular/neurological system is bizarre, well to you and maybe others that might be true. However, Dr Wm Orien one of the leaders in podiatric bio-mechanics, once presented a paper at a seminar I attended that discussed the relationship of alignment benefit and circulation, much along the lines I stated, and I don’t recall anyone saying he was bizarre. (I’ll make an effort in the meantime to get a copy of that paper if it’s available). As to the effect of alignment on the neurological system, if I’m not mistaken I feel that most of my colleagues would agree that for one example,Tarsal Tunnel stems from an underlying bio-mechanical cause.

I made a simple statement: I believe that alignment and balance of the human body is healthy not only to the joints of the body, but the soft tissues too . Why is that so inflammatory to you? Why does that make me a quack and unethical ?Why am I unfit to prescribe and dispense a non-invasive, non-toxic device that if it hurts, you can remove it and everything goes back to the way it was.

Because you feel that orthotics are ONLY for medical intervention in your opinion? Are you aware that just about anyone can make or sell an orthotic?Are you aware that orthotics have exceeded a one billion dollar/yr industry and growing at 8% annually? (Roniger 2002)

I for one do not always need scientific proof to see something that makes sense.

Sometimes in this world it takes people who think outside the box to begin to change paradigms. Please don’t think in anyway, that what I’m about to say is that I’m comparing myself, but Dr Louis Pasteur in the late 1800’s told his colleagues to wash their hands prior to delivering a birth, and most laughed at him. As he continued to get them to try it, it was eventually found that the incidence of post partum infections was greatly reduced. I don’t know at all, if someone called him a quack , but I wouldn’t be surprised.

Progress can’t happen if everyone thinks the same.

Result number: 153

Message Number 226183

Re: World Crisis Locator URLView ThreadPosted by james e on 3/29/07 at 02:58

ya, its done it to me once where i thought mine hung up and still transmitted

thats a cool site, nother one added to favorites. nice find.

if your a fan of mma, which most people arent visit www.mma.tv (it is growing, the last ufc held in ohio drew a record setting 19,009 people. event drew near 100 million.) a few of the fighters post there and so does joe rogan (fear factor, disqusting show i never liked. always loved ufc since like 14 years old.)

Any Vet that attacks another vet on their heroic service with deceitful comments doesn't deserve this honor...it'd be a dishonor to our nation. If they wanted to attack Kerry on his testimony it would have been fair game. Instead they engaged in deceit and those who participated in any shape or mannor does not deserve recognition anywhere in our government. If you play the game of deceit one should be prepared for the consequences and he got his today.

President Bush on Wednesday withdrew the ambassadorial nomination of businessman Sam Fox after Democrats denounced Fox for giving money to a controversial conservative group that undermined Sen. John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign.

On Tuesday, Kerry's Vietnam crew mates had sent a letter urging committee members to oppose Fox's nomination.

'In our judgment, those who finance smears and lies of combat veterans don't deserve to represent America on the world stage,'' said the letter signed by 11 Vietnam Swift Boat veterans who served with Kerry.

Kerry, D-Mass., had criticized Fox because of a $50,000 contribution that Fox made in 2004 to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

I don't mean to be rude, but I'm literally shocked at the things I read in your posts. This is not a simple matter of conflicting opinions; your posts contains an enormous amount of minsinformation and frankly reek of salesmanship. I don't mean to be inflammatory but there is simply no way for me to respond other than in criticizm.

I'm not so much bothered by your almost arbitrary dismissal of barefoot walking/running as your zealous promotion of orthotics.

Your discussion of pronation is an absolute molestation of basic human anatomy and biomechanics. The claim that every single person pronates excessively due to natural poor alignment is wholly unsupportable, lacking any basis in science whatsoever. No-one has ever identified what degree of pronation is excessive (with respect to running) in anything other than arbitrary terms, so it is not possible to state definitively that any individual over-pronates, much less that EVERYONE does so.

I am not implying that there is no such thing as excess pronation or that certain injuries due not occur for this reason, but to suggest that all runners pronate excessively and that everyone should use orthotics by default is beyond ridiculous. In my opinion this view betrays a very serious ignorance of human biomechanics.

To my knowledge, no published study has ever demonstrated that orthotics are effective at preventing running injuries, and I’m absolutely certain that no study has shown that orthotics improve race times. So you are essentially recommending a MEDICAL TREATMENT to everyone who runs on the basis of sheer inference and assumptions pulled out of thin air.

Orthotics constitute a form of medical intervention just like prescription medications do, and medical treatments should not be administered to people who don’t need them. Saying that all runners should wear orthotics is like saying that all runners should take CELEBREX daily to prevent the normal muscular soreness associated with exercise.

Result number: 156

Message Number 226164

Re: FOOT ORTHOTICS AS A HEALTH BENEFIT TO THE POPULATIONView ThreadPosted by Dr. Clive Andrews on 3/28/07 at 17:45

Dr. KIper

With all due respect, I strongly disagree with everything you said in this post re: foot orthotics as a health benefit to the population.' In my opinion your view reflects a zealous over-reliance on orthotics and reinforces the perception of podiatrists as orthotics salesmen.

Orthotics are a specific MEDICAL INTERVENTION indicated for the treatment of specific MEDICAL PROBLEMS, just like medications and surgery are. And as with all forms of medical treatment, orthotics have risks and drawbacks associated with their use. A medical treatment should only be prescribed when the medical need for its PROVEN (not inferred/assumed) benefits outweighs its risks and drawbacks.

Frankly most people (meaning the general population, not just the patients who show up in your office) have no medical need for orthotics and no 'biomechanical' abnormalities that would justify their use in the name of prevention. To my knowledge, there is ZERO published research indicating that orthotics have any long-term preventative value in terms of wear and tear or other musculoskeletal problems, so your claims about their supposed health benefits are wholly unscientific and are NOT inside of mainstream medical thought. The statements about orthotics improving neurological and vascular health are particularly bizarre. Good medical professionals do not make up such information out of thin air.

To subject a healthy person with normal foot structure and no glaring mechanical problems to a medical treatment with no proven preventative value is unethical and, in principle, not much different from the various forms of quackery found in alternative heath professions. If this is not intuitive to you, then I have to question your fitness to dispense orthotics to anyone.

I don't mean to be inflammatory, but I feel obligated to combat what I feel is genuinely bad medical information.

Result number: 157

Message Number 225920

Re: Tarsal Tunnel or neuropathy??View ThreadPosted by MariaM on 3/25/07 at 14:24

My doctor is a sports medicine podiatrist who was fellowship trained in these kinds of surgeries. My condition had to do with my distance running partly so that's why he is sports med.

He believed what I was telling him was true. He was fairly confident after months and months of visits (he asked my symptoms every single time I went in which was about every other week) and failed conservative treatments that he knew where my compression was located and what could possibly be compressing it. I withdrew from my senior year of college, flew back from Miami to my home in NJ, showed up at his office, and said, 'Please help me. I can't live like this. I need these surgeries. I'm ready.'

I had my first surgery in September 06 and my second in November 06, but I stupidly returned to college in January which is why my recovery has been so slow. I don't have a car and have to walk everywhere and I am thousands of miles from home. He expects me to make a full recovery and says I will see great improvement when I come home from the summer and stop all of the activity I am forced to do down here at school.

My symptoms were burning pain and numbness that would get worse and worse and worse the longer I stood up but would subside when I stopped activity. I had some pain around my ankle bones and shooting electrical type pains up toward my first few toes. I had pain in my arch and some in my heal. It felt like I had no flesh on my feet when I would stand. Like it was bone hitting concrete. My symptoms gradually got more intense over a period of about 18 months before I had my surgeries.

Aetrex is an old, and very trusted brand for me. Their history is with orthopedic grandma shoes, but started producing both athletic and casual footwear a couple years ago. The hallmark of the line is the added depth inside the shoes in order to accommodate both approved diabetic inserts and allow for special modifications.

The two running shoes they make are the Lenex and Voyage. Both a good shoes, but fit and perform very differently.

The Lenex was the first to come out and features a broad, deep last. It has firm torsional control on top of an extremely soft EVA midsole. Although at one time it won for the Best Cushioning category in a Runner's World test, for most fitness runners this will be short lived. Someone putting 15 or more miles per week into their running shoes will probably reduce it's cushioning significantly inside 2-3 months. Anyone with lateral control issues should completely avoid this shoe.

The Voyage is the newer model. It is not as deep of a shoe, and definitely fits slimmer and longer overall. Although it uses a similar EVA foam as the Lenex, it features more rearfoot flaring. Thus, making it a bit more stable. Because of it's lower profile, it also feels a bit more supportive on the medial side (even though it uses almost identical technology).

As for performance comparisons with Brooks, there is no comparison. Brooks is a far superior brand for those seeking shoes fitness for running or walking. This has to do with the quality of the midsole compounds, the variety of support structures, and their overall durability.

I use both brands for a variety of patients. Although there are models in both brands which are suitable for use with orthotics and AFO's, I definitely prefer Brooks when I need to consider performance characteristics. When I need to have good quality, good cushioning and the treatments I am applying require additional depth, I usually turn to Aetrex or Drew.

Result number: 159

Message Number 225066

Re: Harry Belafonte audio, one angry dudeView ThreadPosted by john h on 3/13/07 at 11:19

By the very nature of their actors like as much attention as they can get. Jumping into the political arena gets them the attention they so much seek. I would not be surprised if their agents even recommend they speak out. Some actors are very knowledgeable and others probably do not know who the speaker of the house is.

Of course actors have a right to speak out just like anyone else but unfortunately they have a platform that you and I will never have and the media spreads their words. We all have one vote but actors who are political activist have more than one vote due to their high profile and ability to persuade people who cannot think for themselves and have millions of dollars to throw around to politicians and hope to be an insider in politics. With their fame on the big screen they can even become President (Reagan), Governor (Arnold), Senator (Fred from TN who is now thinking about a run for the Presidency). Would these people have ever reached these positions without their fame as actors? Are the Dixie Chicks more informed than the Lennon Sisters or the Andrews Sisters or even Mo, Joe, and Curly? Would all of the Kennedy klan have ever reached the various offices if JFK had not been President? No! anyone cannot grow up to be President. At least not any more. You need to be a very rich person just for openers. Still, this beats having a socialist government or a Dictator.

Result number: 160

Message Number 224833

Re: Good dress shoes for men with tendency toward PF?View ThreadPosted by Jeremy L on 3/10/07 at 12:51

Church's makes excellent shoes, but on those hard marble floors I am a big fan of softer rubber or urethane soles. Of course, the main criteria in ensuring that your orthotics function as intended include having some type of substantial shanking and matching the correct upper shape for your fit needs. Listed below are some brands which incorporate all these, but don't take them as gospel recommendations as you should have someone evaluate their last shape to your foot shape.

Coulter Braces For The Storm.........maybeView ThreadPosted by marie on 3/09/07 at 21:56

Her website has been inaccessable since she was lambasted by Republicans and Democrats. I have to say I was mightily impressed by the Republicans who stepped up to the plate on her latest hate speech. Slowly but surely most of the honest Republicans out there are finding their voice and that's a good thing. Along with the Oakland Press the following 2 papers have discontinued her column.

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18049056&BRD=1211&PAG=461&dept_id=169689&rfi=6"When we agree to buy a syndicated column we expect the writer to offer responsible, reasoned opinion on national and international issues," Editor Stan Voit said. "Ms. Coulter's column drew an unusual amount of criticism from our readers when we first started running it, but we felt she was a nationally known writer offering her opinions in her own style. However we will not continue to publish the columns of someone who uses people as a punch line to get a cheap laugh and who so freely uses an offensive term to describe another human being."http://www.lancasteronline.com/"crude characterization of presidential candidate John Edwards as a homosexual.The quality of public discussion falls below that which Lancaster County residents expect in the opinion pages of their daily newspaper."

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Re: Thanks for the Srell Check Dorthy of OZView ThreadPosted by Jim on 3/07/07 at 11:28

By Ted SampleyU.S. Veteran Dispatch January 1, 2006"You can't back down. You can't chicken out. You can't be afraid. You've got to have faith in Allah, and you've got to stand up and be a real Muslim," Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to the United States Congress, instructed a cheering crowd of Muslims last month in Dearborn.

He urged the group to remain steadfast in their faith and push for "justice."

"Allaha akbar" were the last words heard on the cockpit voice recorder of Flight 93, just before Muslims murdered all its passengers by crashing the jetliner into the ground.

Muslim presence in Dearborn dates back to the last decade of the 19th century, when men from Lebanon followed a larger number of Lebanese Christian immigrants to the U.S.

Dearborn, which was originally settled in 1795 by German Catholics as a stagecoach stop on the Sauk Trail between Detroit and Chicago, has slowly given way to an escalating population of Palestinian, Lebanese, Yemenis and Iraqi emigrants and their descendants in turn.

Today, Dearborn is dominated by Lebanese Muslims, with an Arab population that has grown to nearly 40,000 from 7,000 in 1970. It has evolved into a midwestern United States re-creation of the Middle East with the second largest concentration of Arabs and Muslims outside the Middle East, second only to Paris.

In July, the Congress of Arab American Organizations sponsored rallies in front of Dearborn's city hall supporting the terrorist group Hezbollah and its rocket attacks on Israel.

Hezbollah is a militant Islamic group founded in 1982 in Lebanon. It is bitterly opposed to the state of Israel and derives substantial financial, technical and military support from Iran and Syria.

Conservative columnist Debbie Schlussel reported that at one of the Dearborn rallies she attended, she heard a Muslim imam yelling to the crowds "Jews are diseased!" She said the rallies were attended and endorsed by most Dearborn's Islamic leaders.

Schlussel, while working for the Detroit Free Press, went undercover into a Dearborn mosque and reported her findings of extensive anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism.

She has referred to Fordson High School in Dearborn as "Hezbollah High" because of its rallies defending the radical Islamic terrorist organization. About 95 percent of Fordson's 2,300 students are Arab. Several Fordson graduates have been arrested on suspicion of terrorist activities including two of its former football stars.

Fifty-two of Fordson's 53 football players are Muslim. Before every game, the team gathers and offers Muslim prayers.

Eight years ago, Dearborn schools banned pork from their lunches to accommodate Muslim dietary guidelines and pressure from organized groups of Muslim parents forced the separation of gym classes by gender in at least one school.

Because so many in Dearborn are so openly pro-Hezbollah, some pundits have referred to Dearborn as "Hezbollah USA."

After his election in November, Ellison, a Minnesota Democrat, ignited a storm of criticism when he announced that he planned to take his oath of office on the Muslim book of jihad - the Quran, instead of the Holy Bible.

U.S. Rep. Virgil Goode, a Republican from Virginia, warned his constituents in a letter last month that the election of Ellison and other Muslims poses a danger to the country.

Ellison, speaking at the annual convention of the Muslim American Society and the Islamic Circle of North America, said that Muslims can help teach America about justice and equal protection. Suggesting a divine Islamic calling, Ellison asked, "Muslims, you're up to bat right now, how do you know that you were not brought right here to this place to learn how to make this world better?"

The convention drew more than 3,000 Muslims from across the country aimed at Islamic revival and reform in the United States.

Ellison, who converted to Islam during college, said he'd use the Quran during his swearing-in ceremony next week. "On Jan. 4, I will go swear an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States. I'll place my hand on the Quran," Ellison said to loud applause. He added, "This controversy has ... made people dust off their Constitution and actually read it "

Interestingly, the Quran demands believers to be completely submissive to a non-constitutional Islamic, theocratic form of government in which the State acknowledges the legal supremacy of God and the teachings of Muhammad.

Muslims, according to the Quran, must fight and kill in the name of Allah, whether they like it or not. Quran 2:216

The Quran is militantly anti-Judeo-Christian. It refers to non-Muslims as unbelievers, hypocrites and infidels directing Muslims to "make war" against them so they might be sent to their "homes in hell." (Surah 9:73)

Inside Bush's prosecutor purgeWhy has the administration fired U.S. attorneys with sterling track records? To make room for its political loyalists, critics say, and exert its last shred of control. By Mark Follman

Feb. 28, 2007 (PIPE) Ever since the Bush administration shocked the legal community by dismissing eight U.S. attorneys in December, Justice Department leaders have vigorously denied that the firings were politically motivated. "I would never, ever make a change in the United States attorney position for political reasons," Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said in Senate testimony in early January. In a Feb. 6 hearing, Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty told lawmakers, "When I hear you talk about the politicizing of the Department of Justice, it's like a knife in my heart."

But at least three of the eight fired attorneys were told by a superior they were being forced to resign to make jobs available for other Bush appointees, according to a former senior Justice Department official knowledgeable about their cases. That stands in contradiction to administration claims that the firings were related either to job performance or policy differences. A fourth U.S. attorney was told by a top Justice Department official that the dismissal in that attorney's case was not necessarily related to job performance. Meanwhile, U.S. Attorney David Iglesias in New Mexico -- who officially steps down from his post on Wednesday, and who says he was never told by superiors about any problems with his work -- plans to go public with documentation of the achievements of his office.

"I never received any indication at all of a problem" regarding performance or policy differences, Iglesias told Salon on Monday. "That only leaves a third option: politics."

Iglesias acknowledged that U.S. attorneys serve at the pleasure of the president and can be dismissed without cause. "But it's really been maddening," he said, that the administration is pointing to job-performance issues to defend the firings. Iglesias, who was appointed by Bush in 2001, noted that his office got a "very positive" evaluation in the Justice Department's own internal ratings system as recently as last fall and that he received a letter from the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys in January 2006 commending him for his "exemplary leadership in the Department's priority programs," including antiterrorism, community crime prevention and law enforcement coordination.

Iglesias said he was "shocked" by the phone call on Dec. 7 telling him to resign. He added, "I think Americans need to have full confidence that their federal prosecutors are above politics."

Suspicions about the unusual purge of eight U.S. attorneys in December exploded into the open across the legal community and on Capitol Hill after McNulty conceded in Senate testimony on Feb. 6 that the U.S. attorney in Arkansas, Bud Cummins, was pushed out for no reason other than to give someone else a shot at the job. Using a little-noticed provision in the Patriot Act allowing interim appointments, Gonzales gave the post to Timothy Griffin -- who had been both an operative for the Republican National Committee and a deputy to senior White House advisor Karl Rove -- in what many believe was a maneuver to sidestep the traditional Senate confirmation process for U.S. attorneys.

More recently, U.S. attorney Carole Lam, who is best known for nailing corrupt Republican Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham and his partners in crime, was replaced on Feb. 15 by Karen P. Hewitt, who according to a Justice Department press release, "will serve on an interim basis until a United States Attorney is nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate." According to an Op-Ed in Monday's New York Times, Hewitt has a résumé with "almost no criminal law experience" and is a member of the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group.

While Cummins was first informed of his dismissal last June, it wasn't until Dec. 7 that Michael Battle, a top Justice Department official, informed the rest of the group of U.S. attorneys in phone calls that they would be required to step down. That group included Daniel Bogden in Nevada, Paul Charlton in Arizona, John McKay in Seattle, Carole Lam in San Diego, and David Iglesias in New Mexico -- all of whom had received positive job reviews before they were dismissed and some of whom are viewed by colleagues and law enforcement officials as exceptional leaders. Most of them have said publicly that they were never told of any management or policy problems by their superiors.

According to the former senior Justice Department official, one of the U.S. attorneys in the group was told by Battle on Dec. 7: "It's hard not to think you did something wrong when you get a call like this, but that's not always the case." Two other U.S. attorneys in the group, upon seeking clarification from superiors in Washington, were told by a different top Justice Department official that they were being pushed out to give other Bush appointees their posts. A current senior Justice Department official confirmed that one of those two was Bogden in Nevada.

When asked about those conversations with top officials, Bryan Roehrkasse, a public affairs spokesman for the Justice Department, declined to comment about "specific personnel matters."

Former officials, legal scholars and U.S. lawmakers from both parties have publicly questioned the administration's stated rationale for the firings and have suggested troubling theories about the real reasons for the purge, which experts say is without precedent. Some former Justice Department officials say they believe the administration's moves are a politically driven power grab -- aimed not only at a tighter grip on policy from Washington, but also at creating openings with which to reward their friends and build up a bench of conservative loyalists positioned to serve in powerful posts in future administrations.

"It's really remarkable to have a wholesale removal of an administration's own U.S. attorneys, particularly this deep into the term," said John Kroger, a federal prosecutor under Clinton and Bush who now teaches at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Ore. "Clearly there was a concerted decision made to ask a bunch of them to leave. It suggests a desire to more tightly control policy. With the Democrats in control of Congress, perhaps it's because this is one of the few levers of government they have left."

Many point to the Cummins firing as proof that the administration is lying. "It is simply not believable that these were all performance-based dismissals, and everyone knows it," said a veteran prosecutor who served for a decade in the Justice Department until 2005. He also noted that he found it interesting that half of the posts cleared out are in the Southwest, where immigration is a key issue.

Kroger added that a stint as U.S. attorney is often a springboard to federal judgeships or other prestigious appointments. "Being a U.S. attorney is a huge credential, one a lot of people would like to have," he said. "It certainly looks like they're clearing out spots to reward loyalists in the last two years of the administration."

To support their claim that the dismissals were performance related, Bush officials have pointed to one among the fired U.S. attorneys, Kevin Ryan in San Francisco, who has been widely reported to be a focus of management complaints. The firing of Margaret Chiara in Michigan, the eighth U.S. attorney caught up in the December purge, was not made public until last Friday. To date, no explanation for her dismissal has been provided by Chiara or administration officials, but the former senior Justice Department official confirmed she was asked to resign in December and was in negotiations to stay in her post.

Realistically, federal appointments are never apolitical. But while U.S. attorneys serve at the pleasure of the president, they are traditionally recommended by federal judges and senators from the regions they serve, and are ultimately confirmed by the Senate. But thanks to a change put into the Patriot Act by Pennsylvania Republican Arlen Specter when it was reauthorized in late 2005, Gonzales and the White House gained the power to fill vacancies with interim appointees who can hold office for indefinite terms. Earlier this month, the Senate Judiciary Committee put forth legislation to restore limits for those terms (and thereby congressional vetting for long-term hires), but a full Senate vote on the bill was blocked by Republicans.

Incoming presidents are known to overhaul the corps of U.S. attorneys installed by prior administrations. Upon taking office, both Presidents Clinton and Bush replaced nearly all of the head prosecutors serving in the Justice Department's 94 districts nationwide. But it is rare for even one U.S. attorney to otherwise be dismissed during a president's term -- and in this case, all those dismissed by Bush were his own appointees.

Experts see a continuing pattern that began long ago: A Bush White House seizing greater executive power to the detriment of democratic principle.

"No doubt this is a threat to the independent stature that the Justice Department as an institution has enjoyed over the years," said Sam Buell, an associate professor at Washington University School of Law in St. Louis and a former federal prosecutor under the current President Bush. "It goes against the 'hands off' tradition, which has insulated U.S. attorneys from criticisms of politics influencing their choices and handling of cases. This doesn't look like a decision that's been made in the best interest of law enforcement."

Indeed, several of the fired attorneys had stellar track records. Like Iglesias in New Mexico, Daniel Bogden steps down Wednesday from the helm of a U.S. attorney's office in Nevada that saw unsurpassed achievements in law enforcement during his tenure. In a phone interview Monday, Bogden cited a record number of cases targeting guns, drugs, identity theft and sexual exploitation, among other criminal issues.

"To this day, I've never been told of any deficiencies in my performance or that of my office," Bogden said. "I've never been called by anyone suggesting that I should do something differently on policy, or that I was going against their policy."

In Seattle, John McKay's record as U.S. attorney has left many observers baffled by his dismissal. The raison d'être of the Bush White House is supposed to be the war on terrorism -- and McKay, by many measures, was an invaluable lieutenant in that battle.

McKay was appointed by Bush shortly after terrorists struck the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. Over the next five years, in a major port city and a border region critical for antiterrorist operations, he personally handled high-profile prosecutions, including that of Ahmed Ressam, who had driven across the Canada-U.S. border with plans to bomb Los Angeles International Airport at the turn of the millennium. In 2004, at a time when poor coordination among law enforcement agencies had been judged at least partly to blame for the 9/11 attacks, McKay developed an innovative data-sharing system that continues to be rolled out today in law enforcement offices nationwide.

Just over five months ago, on Sept. 22, 2006, the Justice Department completed a comprehensive evaluation of McKay's office, filled with high marks on both criminal and counterterrorism matters, including McKay's efforts to build greater cooperation among law enforcement agencies in both the United States and Canada. McKay "has been responsible for major advances in a cooperative cross-border effort," the report said. "All involved in these efforts pointed to U.S. Attorney McKay as the individual most responsible for the dramatic increase in cooperation."

"The report says nothing about me with regard to management or policy differences," McKay said in an interview last week. "Counterterrorism was our No. 1 priority, and I put an enormous amount of my personal time into it." He added, "If there were performance issues of any kind, they didn't tell me about it, and to this day I'm unaware of any."

"This is a huge loss," said Gil Kerlikowske, Seattle's chief of police. "I've worked with a lot of U.S. attorneys in my time and John is absolutely at the top of the ladder, not only on issues of terrorism but on law enforcement in general. I can tell you that if they're saying John's dismissal was performance related ... I find that almost inconceivable." Kerlikowske noted that McKay had crucial perspective, having served as a White House fellow at the FBI. "He knew how tough the barriers could be between law enforcement agencies, and he really helped break down those walls with information sharing."

"He was a champion with all the federal law enforcement agencies, but especially with ATF," said Kelvin Crenshaw, a 19-year veteran of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the special agent in charge of the Seattle field office. "He's one of the best U.S. attorneys I've ever worked with."

Administration officials have declined to provide further explanation for any of the attorneys' dismissals, including McKay's. On Feb. 14, McNulty, the deputy attorney general, gave a private briefing to the Senate Judiciary Committee, but afterward, Patty Murray, D-Wash., said, "I heard nothing from Department of Justice officials that changed my mind about John McKay's performance." Other senators who were present concurred with that view, according to a Democratic congressional aide briefed on the closed-door session.

Questions remain about how the Bush administration will seek to fill the newly vacant posts. Some former Justice Department officials say they believe that the administration has since revised its plans to reward political loyalists with the jobs, due to the backlash against the decision to push out Cummins in Arkansas and hand his post to Griffin. Earlier this month, the administration withdrew Griffin's name from consideration for a permanent appointment, though he remains in office indefinitely.

But if other recent appointees are an indication, the administration may be intent on installing conservatives with close ties to the White House. According to a Jan. 26 report by McClatchy Newspapers, since last March the administration has named at least nine U.S. attorneys who fit that profile, most of them hand-picked by Gonzales under the little-noticed provision of the Patriot Act that has since become law. They include Jeff Taylor, previously an aide to both Gonzales and former Attorney General John Ashcroft; Alexander Acosta, a protégé of conservative Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito; and Edward McNally, a former senior associate counsel to President Bush.

And some critics expect that, despite the recent uproar over Cummins and the other attorneys' firings, the Bush White House will continue to find ways to erode the independence of the Justice Department.

"This is an administration that has not hesitated to discard conventional wisdom just because people say it's wrong," said Buell, the former federal prosecutor under Bush. "This is an administration that looks at the landscape and isn't afraid to rewrite the rules and say, 'We're going to do it our own way.'"

Indeed they are Dorothy. At least Dr. Andrew Weil says so. Not only do they live long but they do not become disabled as fast as other nations. I do not know the science behind this but they do eat a lot of fish and the Japanese tend to take life easy and are more stoic than most. They also are very family oriented and take and respect the aged. Seems like I landed their once but did not leave the base on my short stay.

Indeed they are Dorothy. At least Dr. Andrew Weil says so. Not only do they live long but they do not become disabled as fast as other nations. I do not know the science behind this but they do eat a lot of fish and the Japanese tend to take life easy and are more stoic than most. They also are very family oriented and take and respect the aged. Seems like I landed their once but did not leave the base on my short stay.

Indeed they are Dorothy. At least Dr. Andrew Weil says so. Not only do they live long but they do not become disabled as fast as other nations. I do not know the science behind this but they do eat a lot of fish and the Japanese tend to take life easy and are more stoic than most. They also are very family oriented and take and respect the aged. Seems like I landed their once but did not leave the base on my short stay.

The Tennessee Center for Policy Research, an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan research organization committed to achieving a freer, more prosperous Tennessee through free market policy solutions, issued a press release late Monday:

Last night, Al Gore’s global-warming documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, collected an Oscar for best documentary feature, but the Tennessee Center for Policy Research has found that Gore deserves a gold statue for hypocrisy.

Gore’s mansion, [20-room, eight-bathroom] located in the posh Belle Meade area of Nashville, consumes more electricity every month than the average American household uses in an entire year, according to the Nashville Electric Service (NES).

In his documentary, the former Vice President calls on Americans to conserve energy by reducing electricity consumption at home.

The average household in America consumes 10,656 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year, according to the Department of Energy. In 2006, Gore devoured nearly 221,000 kWh—more than 20 times the national average.

Last August alone, Gore burned through 22,619 kWh—guzzling more than twice the electricity in one month than an average American family uses in an entire year. As a result of his energy consumption, Gore’s average monthly electric bill topped $1,359.

Since the release of An Inconvenient Truth, Gore’s energy consumption has increased from an average of 16,200 kWh per month in 2005, to 18,400 kWh per month in 2006.

Gore’s extravagant energy use does not stop at his electric bill. Natural gas bills for Gore’s mansion and guest house averaged $1,080 per month last year.

As the spokesman of choice for the global warming movement, Al Gore has to be willing to walk to walk, not just talk the talk, when it comes to home energy use, said Tennessee Center for Policy Research President Drew Johnson.

In total, Gore paid nearly $30,000 in combined electricity and natural gas bills for his Nashville estate in 2006.

Well, you are right on part of it. While Standing Comfort does specialize in duty shoes for those professions, they build their footwear with many of the same orthopedic features as their Drew branded counterparts. In fact, they are the only shoes of this type that have an honest to goodness shank placed in the sole, helping to provide support and reduce fatigue.

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Re: SoleSupportsView ThreadPosted by Standing Comfort on 2/16/07 at 08:03

i wanted to point out that this post was not accurate... www.standingcomfort.com sells nursing and chef shoes... www.drewshoe.com sells orthopedic shoes and diabetic shoes

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Re: Dixie Chicks Up For Album of the YEARView ThreadPosted by larrym on 2/15/07 at 08:51

Well in a nutshell art is whatever one defines it as be they the artist or the viewer. I cited some controverisal "artists" and some different scenarios of what could be called art by one and "shit" by another. One person cant justify a giant mass of welded scrap iron as art and pay or charge $50k for it and claim it is a bald eagle symbolizing freedom and a crowd of people could view it and see nothing close to an eagle but a mere pile of welded junk.

An elitist art person may brand them as ignorant and lacking vision but who is to say that they are? Maybe they are right. Is a guy more expressive in his art if he spends 7 weeks painting an intricate panorama of a battle in Faluja with all the dead and wounded being american soldiers. But some graphitti kid spends 1 hour painting "stop the war Bush sucks" on the side of a train and that can be just as "artistict" and politicl depending on whom is viewing it. Art is like some foods. One culture may eat fried beetles and rodent testicles and call it a delicacy and a feast. Many other cultures would view them as heathens and crazy for clling that food.

You of all people should know that you shouldnt present art in the snobish, elitist view that you are. I hope you dont use that narrow view when dealing with students. Would give an equal grade if some kid did a drawing of a Bradley tank ripping up some terror nest and titled it "GO ARMY" Or would you give the same treatment to some kid that did a drawing of the dixie chicks on stage and titled it Bush Sucks or Down With American War Machine. When you start quantifying who should and should not be allowed to say what is or isnt art you missed the whole point.

Another way to look at this. Say someone on here was a patient and they said orthotics suck, they are a rip off and the people that make them dont care. I WOULDNT respond with Hey I went to school for that and I am trained in that, you arent, you are just a dumb patient that doesnt "get it" so just be quite until you are officially trained in the matter.

Furthermore if someone cant draw for instance, should their view on what art is be taken any less? Some of Picasso's work looks like something an autistic child drew. Yet, it would sell for millions while another painting or drawing tht is very intricate and detailed may fetch $250 at a show at the mall. Obviously there are many dynamics at work in both of those scenarios. Enough for now

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Abraham Lincoln's birthdayView ThreadPosted by Dorothy on 2/13/07 at 01:13

We've probably all seen this before but it's always fascinating. As the 12th was Lincoln's birthday, here is this intriguing list again:

Eerie similarities between Abraham Lincoln and John F. KennedyLife

Both presidents had seven letters in their last name. Both were over six feet tall. Both men studied law. Both seemed to have lazy eye muscles, which would sometimes cause one to deviate. Both suffered from genetic diseases. It is suspected that Lincoln had Marfan's disease, and Kennedy suffered from Addison's disease. Both served in the military. Lincoln was a scout captain in the Black Hawk War, and Kennedy served as a navy lieutenant in World War II. Both were boat captains. Lincoln was a skipper for the Talisman, a Mississippi River boat, and Kennedy was skipper of the PT-109. Both had no fear of their mortality and disdained bodyguards. Both often stated how easy it would be to shoot the president. Lincoln supposedly said, "If somebody wants to take my life, there is nothing I can do to prevent it." Kennedy supposedly said, "If somebody wants to shoot me from a window with a rifle, nobody can stop it." Note that both these quotes are each 16 words long.

Death

Both presidents were shot in the head, on a Friday. Both were seated beside their wives when shot. Neither Mrs. Lincoln nor Mrs. Kennedy was injured. Both wives held the bullet-torn heads of their husbands. In each case, the man was injured but not fatally. Major Henry Rathbone was slashed by a knife, and Governor John Connolly was shot. Lincoln sat in Box 7 at Ford's Theatre. Kennedy rode in car 7 in the Dallas motorcade. Lincoln was shot at Ford's Theatre. Kennedy was shot in a Ford product, a Lincoln limousine. Mrs. Kennedy insisted that her husband's funeral mirror Lincoln's as closely as possible.

The Assassins

Both assassins used three names: John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald. (It should be noted that Lee Harvey Oswald was known as just Lee Oswald prior to the assassination.) There are 15 letters in each assassin's name. Both assassins struck when in their mid-20s. Booth was born in 1838, and Oswald was born in 1939. Each assassin lacked a strong father figure in his life. Booth's father died when he was 13 years old, and Oswald's father died before he was born. Each assassin had two brothers whose careers he coveted. Booth's two brothers were more successful actors and Oswald envied his brothers' military lives. Both assassins were privates in the military. Booth was a private in the Virginia Militia, and Oswald was a private in the Marine Corps. Both assassins were born in the south. Both assassins were known sympathizers to enemies of the United States. Booth supported the Confederacy and Oswald was a Marxist. Both assassins often used aliases. Booth frequently used "J. Wilkes" and Oswald used the name "Alek J. Hidell." Booth shot Lincoln at a theatre and was cornered in a warehouse. Oswald shot Kennedy from a warehouse and was cornered in a theatre. Each assassin was detained by an officer named Baker. Lt. Luther B. Baker was leader of the cavalry patrol that trapped Booth at Garrett's Barn. Officer Marion L. Baker, a Dallas motorcycle patrolman, briefly detained Oswald on the second floor of the School Book Depository until he learned that he worked there. Both assassins were killed with a single shot from a Colt revolver. Both assassins were shot in a blaze of light, Booth after the barn was set afire, and Oswald in the form of television cameras.

Family and Friends

Both presidents were named after their grandfathers. Both were born second children. Both married while in their 30s. Lincoln married at 33 and Kennedy married at 36. Both married dark-haired, 24-year-old women. Both wives died around the age of 64. Mary Todd Lincoln died in 1882 at age 63 years and 215 days, and Jackie Kennedy died in 1994 at age 64 years 295 days. Both wives were known for their high fashion in clothes. Both wives renovated the White House after many years of neglect. Each couple had four children, two of whom died before becoming a teen. Each couple lost a son while in the White House. Willie Lincoln died at age 12 in 1862, and Kennedy's son Patrick died two days after his birth in 1963.

Politics

Both presidents were elected to the House of Representatives in '46. Both were runners-up for the party's nomination for vice-president in '56. Both were elected to the presidency in '60.

Vice Presidents

Southern Democrats named Johnson succeeded both Lincoln and Kennedy (Andrew Johnson and Lyndon Baines Johnson). Andrew Johnson was born in 1808, and Lyndon Johnson was born in 1908. There are six letters in each Johnson's first name. Both Johnsons served in the military. Andrew was a brigadier general in the Civil War and Lyndon was a commander in the U.S. Navy during WW2. Both Johnsons were former southern senators. Both Johnsons had urethral stones, the only presidents to have them. Both Johnsons chose not to run for reelection in '68.

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Re: Dressier support shoes for intensive dancing...View ThreadPosted by Jeremy L on 2/11/07 at 20:22

There are certainly a lot of good options available to you, based a lot upon your foot shape and the design aspect of your orthotic. Most of the better styles will still require the modification you described. 1/6" of chrome leather does a perfect job for the forefoot needs in dancing. It goes without saying that having the right fit and size makes a tremendous difference.

You might also have dancer's pads installed in the forefoot of the shoe, especially if it's a depth shoe like a PW Minor. It's basically a forefoot filler with a pocket relief for the sesamoids cut into it.

In addition to PW Minor here are some other brands I have used with good success for dancers:

DrewKumfsHelle ComfortAravonNaotShoe FlyJosef SeibelRockport

Well, this should get you started. Of course, you will likely save yourself an abundance of time and aggravation by shopping with a professional who knows his products. Even better if he/she also has experience in making the modifications you need.

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Re: Whitehouse DEFENDS Pelosi's RequestView ThreadPosted by john h on 2/09/07 at 16:22

There are a number of aircraft stationed at Andrews that Polosi could have used much smaller than the very large C-32 which cost approximately $25,000 an hour to operate and requires a crew of 10-16.

The C-37A is the Air Force version of the Gulfstream V. It can cruise at 40-51000 ft and has a range of 5500 miles at normal cruising speed of 600 knots. It can carry 9 passengers and a crew of 5. There are 4 of these stationed at Andrews. Even the C-20 could make the flight non stop to San Francisco if it does not have unfavorable headwinds (usually in the winter months). This is a $36 million dollar aircraft. There are also other corporate type jets stationed at Andrews that could easily make the trip. These are not junk type aircraft people they are plush as can be. No one will ever convince me Polosi needs a Presidential type 200 passenger aircraft with state room, blah blah to fly back and forth to her home district at $25,000 per hour plus crew. It is reported over and over that Murtha did in fact put in a call to who ever is in charge of these aircraft on Pelosi's behalf. I think he is head of the Appropriations Committee who can fund money to the units flying these aircraft so using him would seem to be totally inappropriate. All of the Congressman can request aircraft for various reasons and they can take their wives, staff, and even civilian supportersalong with them. Usually these have to be requested in advance and approved by some ethics committee. Being the Leader of the House perhaps Pelosi does not have to go though the same hoops the others do but she sure does not need a C-32 and then have the gaul to say she would only fly on a non stop aircraft. Hey Nancy! They were shooting at my butt when I flew and I often slept on the tarmac under a wing in 90 degree weather not in a state room with a crew of 16 to wait on me. You can hardly get any sympathy from me for insisting on flying to your home in one of the most luxury aircraft in our inventory normally used by the Vice President or President and that it must be non-stop. Does she know there is an oil shortage? Wake up and smell the roses lady and any of the rest of you spoiled egotistical politicians that are wasting our tax money. When I flew to Vietnam it was on a chartered Flying Tiger Airlines aircraft with about 300 other troops. We stopped three times to refuel and were packed in like sheep. Are you any more important than the troops on those aircraft? You can bet many of them never made the trip back home.

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Message Number 221894

Re: Whitehouse DEFENDS Pelosi's RequestView ThreadPosted by john h on 2/08/07 at 16:55

Marie: I have not been following the Pelosi/Aircraft problem as that seems insignificant in the big scheme of things. You are way over the top labeling everyone who complains as "sexist" and or "ignorant" who complain. I flew Senators, Congressmen, and other high ranking politicians and appointees from Washington into London,Paris, and Frankfurt on a weekly basis for 4 years. Our aircraft was a DC-6B 4 recip engine aircraft the standard of the day for the airlines. Our aircraft were as good or better than first class on any airline. Drew Pearson a well known columnist of the day had a look at one of our aircraft and made it his passion to have them downgraded and not be so plush. He wrote some scathing articles about the Washington fat cat politicians traveling in luxury. As a matter of fact the elected congressional and senatorial people do travel in aircraft that I would say are over the top. We have and always had a large fleet of aircraft based at Andrews AFB just outside of Washington who do nothing but fly these ladies and gentleman around. I never flew a President or Vice President but I flew just about everyone else over the years. I do think there is some abuse of aircraft use by politicians. Not just one party but in general. How do I know? Because I flew them. I saw what they did and what they were supposed to be doing. Custom's agents who inspected all flights arriving from overseas rarely ever inspected these flights for reasons unknown to me so some of these passengers loaded up with items that were never declared and would have been illegal.

Result number: 176

Message Number 221800

Haliburton's Dirty Water For Our TroopsView ThreadPosted by marie on 2/07/07 at 16:02

Democrats have been holding hearings on the contaminated water hearing for a while now......why? because The Republican Party wouldn't allow it to be investigated further. KBR is a subsidiary of Haliburton. The testimony is absolutely disturbing......instead of being investigated it was shoved under the table by Republicans in the committees. My God our troops are putting their lives on the line their families on hold so we can pay for KBR to sit around and play computer games and build entertainment centers for KBR employees in Iraq instead of chlorinating the water.

"An Oversight Hearing on Whether Halliburton Has Failed to Provide Clean Water to United States Troops in Iraq"

Transcript video or written form available from hearing on April 7, 2006: http://democrats.senate.gov/dpc/dpc-hearing.cfm?A=30

Transcript from hearing on Monday, January 23, 2006http://democrats.senate.gov/dpc/dpc-hearing.cfm?A=27Excerpt from testimony Ben Carter, Water Purification Specialist employed for 20 years in that field and worked in Camp Ar Ramadi, Iraq in 2005 as Reverse Osmosis Water Purification Unit.

"I had been told by the usual ROWPU leads that the water was chlorinated and knew that such an organism could not survive in chlorinated water. So I decided at that point to test the water in the employee's bathroom for chlorination.The test results indicated zero presence of chlorine.I then tested at several other locations in the KBR section of the base and discovered no chlorine at those sites either.I then tested the non-potable water storage tank and, to my shock, realized that the water in the tank tested negative for chlorine; that the access lid of the tank was not in place, let alone secure, and the air vents to the tank were turned upward and left unscreened;leaving the water supply vulnerable to contamination from dust, insects, rodents or even enemy attack.I was stunned. No trained water treatment specialist could claim that the water was fit for human use. Having come to that conclusion, and despite the resistance of KBR site management, I immediately chlorinated the non-potable water tank supply KBR personnel. I also made a public announcement over the KBR radio network that all personnel should run their tapsto move the chlorine through the water distribution system. I then informed site management that we needed to notify the military that they should immediately chlorinate their water storage tanks, which drew from the same source. I was told by Suzanne Raku Williams, the KBR site manager, that the military was none of my concern. I was ordered to concern myself only with the health and safety of KBR personnel.Leaving Suzanne Raku Williams in disgust and disbelief, I continued with securing the KBR water supply. KBR employees began to arrive back at their living facilities to run their water as instructed, and started asking me questions about the water qualify. Manyhad health concerns. I'd explain to them that I had discovered the water was not being chlorinated, and that I had immediately and manually chlorinated the water. After answering their questions, I drove out to the ROWPU site at the Euphrates river. Inotified the ROWPU operator, a sergeant, that there was no chlorine in the water. Until that point, I had assumed that we were experiencing a temporary equipment malfunction or human error or something had just gone wrong temporarily."

Result number: 177

Message Number 221762

Re: Bush Will Not Be Impeached but His Adminstration and The Republican Party Are On The Hotplate!View ThreadPosted by john h on 2/07/07 at 10:23

Interesting information: By far and away the leading cause of death in Iraq is IED's. Of the 3000 or so deaths since the start of the war and approximately 500 have been caused by accidents.

We have between 32,000 and 40,000 americans killed each year in auto accidents. Hundreds of thousands more are injured and many crippled for life. When is the last time you saw that as a lead article in the media. In Darfur there have now been over 400,000 innocent persons murdered and over a million injured and displaced and the slaughter goes on. What is the U.N. doing about this? Should we act independently and do anything? If we were to send in troops we would receive heavy criticism from the public and other nations. It would also be used a political ammunition. How do we reconcile all this. After we walked out of Vietnam approximately 3,000,000 people were slaughtered by PolPot and no one did anything. It hardly made the news. Is there anything that is so abhorrent that we should go in on our own without U.N. approval or other nations support?It is often said we cannot police the world. Sadly that is true but there must be some place we draw a line in the sand. Don't you think? Where is that line in the sand? In our nation it is usually the President who draws the line and it is he who takes the slings and arrows be he Democrat or Republican. I think Kennedy and Regan clearly drew lines in the sand and as a result we won the cold war and missiles in Cuba are not pointed in our direction. Both were huge risk and have turned out to be worth it. In either case we could have had an atomic war. In our nations history and often in our personal lives we often have to make unpopular or unwanted decisions. In the few months following 911, the public was screaming for retribution but our public has a very short memory. We remain at a very high risk in the long run and no one has a clear cut answer. I do think the President recognizes the problem. He or no one else has an acceptable solution. I do not think our citizens recognize just how dangerous this problem is and until they do our Congress will follow their lead largely for political reasons. People have long forgotten that President Roosevelt had to go to great lengths to bring us into the war against Hitler as the public and Congress did not think he represented a real threat to us. It took a Pearl Harbor to wake up the public. It will probably take some new catastrophic event to once again galvanize the public. Even then we have a new type of opponent who does not fight you on the battlefield. In the end we may very well have to make preemptive strikes but that want happen until something really terrible happens on our land. Most experts say it is not a matter if we will have a large scale terror attack on our country but when. I think the public knows this but is is buried somewhere in the back of their minds. There is no 100% way to protect this country. We are to big, two many open borders, two many ship containers arriving by the millions, to many people entering this country with bad intentions and to much Political Correctness. We will, as always, have a lot of finger pointing and the usual congressional investigations when something goes wrong and something will go wrong.

Result number: 178

Message Number 221339

Re: Pelosi demands military aircraft for friends and familyView ThreadPosted by john h on 2/01/07 at 19:21

Larrym: I have some up close and personal experience with this type of operation. I was a pilot in the 30th Air Transport Squadron. We flew what was the Hot Dog flight out of Andrews AFB in Washington to London, Paris, and Frankfurt once a week. It was a DC-6 (Most modern at that time) that the airlines used to carry 100+ passengers. We had ours decked out to carry only 46. Hot meals, 3 stewardess (good looking ones), 3 pilots, 2 navigators, and an engineer. We carried state department officials, senators, congressman, senior officers and other civilians as directed. On our trip home we rarely had to go through customs and our passengers loaded up on anything that would fit into an aircraft. Sometimes we took out seats so as to carry the larger goodies. A newspaper columnist got hold of our fun flights and I think it was Drew Person. He had a big expose in the Washington Post, I think, and I may have even had my picture in it condemning these fat cat flights. Some of my friends flew some of the smaller aircraft all around the states for all sorts of non business ventures. These fleets of special aircraft still fly out of Andrews and to all over the world with all sorts of people who seem to have some reason to go anywhere and become instant experts on their one week visits. I have to admit when I no longer flew these flights I had enough booze to open my own bar. I could bring in duty free 4 imperial gallons and I did this for 4 years. A bottle of Beefeater Gin ($.95), a bottle of V.O. ($.95), Heineken beer $.10 a bottle, My wife still uses Joy perfume as I must have brought home a couple of gallons. Was it not Hillary who fired all the people in the travel agency in the White House? Hillary Hillary-

Is there a way you can illustrate where the fascia inserts into the bone? My Doctor drew an x on a drawing he made on the bottom of my heel on the inside of my left heel. Since it is just a drawing it is not precise. He sent the Liticane along and even though I handed the therapist both that and the pheny? she didn't notice that until the 4th treatment. She said that was not her protocal and she called doctor as did I -- and now he is very angry with her and said that Itold him that she said he didn't know what he was doing (feel like I am in High School with this) and so I feel caught in between and I AM IN PAIN AND PAYING FOR THIS. Are you talking about the back of the ankle or the bottom of the foot -- could you be more specific? My doctor told me he gets great results from this but after my 6th treatment I am hobbling. Also my doctor, after 6 months and knowing that I work on my feet, never told me to limit walking or standing over all these 6 and a half months since I've been seeing him.

Sandals are a funny thing. Unlike closed shoes, where last shape and sole construction are the main elements to match properly to the wearer, one also needs to look closely at the sole profile and upper strapping.

As an example, the Drew sandal you listed can be challenging for some people, not so much for the strap configuration, but how they heel portion of the sole is shaped. The Lisa's (as well as the Rene, Lorane and Carla) sole is acutely flared at the back of the heel. For some wearers this design does not roll smoothly at heel strike, and can force the foot forward in the shoe. The end result could be an inability to hold the heel properly in the counter, and thrust the toes in a more confined space in the forefoot.

Something entirely different could happen for some people attempting to wear the PW Minor sandal. Although it's Y-strap configuration should better hold the heel and ankle in place, and it's heel spring shape ought to improve gait motion in comparison to the Drew shoe mentioned, it's reverse-flared midsole could be extremely unstable for some individuals.

Unfortunately, proper fitting isn't always easy with shoes made for the masses. Sorry you had your misfortunes with the Drew.

On Jan 8 I had a gastroc slide to lengthen my achilles plus a peritonectomy on the achilles tendon at the watershed area to remove damaged tissue surrounding the tendon. My surgeon did the slide with one incision. I'm immobilized in a boot since surgery. The slide surgery part felt like a major "charlie horse"...someone pinching hard...but the pain is easing over the past few days. My doc indicated that I should walk with crutches for 10-14 days and slowly start bearing weight on it as soon as I can tolerate it. Two more weeks walking with the boot after that and then physical therapy to get back to normal. I can't say I'm without pain but feel like it's progressing.

I bought the Drew Lisa, but found that even with the insole removed, the rear strap didn't come up high enough on my ankle, the instep strap nearest my leg was too far out and let my foot easily slip forward. And the toe was too pointy, and mangled my pinky and 4th toe.

This didn't give me heel support for my pronation, and the toe cramping probably won't help metatarsalgia.

However, when I was trying on at the store, the Drew Lisa worked better than a Propet I tried because of the 3 straps.

Maybe tons of straps, carefully placed is the key.

Thanks,Alice

Result number: 183

Message Number 219429

Re: Which New Balance shoe?View ThreadPosted by Jeremy L on 1/11/07 at 15:06

Be careful about generalizations regarding New Balance model numbers. The higher number typically indicates a more extravagant technology placed within the shoe, but that is not always the case. The 587 remains one of their best shoes for people suffering a variety of foot conditions; however, like anything else in their line it's not intended for everyone.

On the slip resistance front, even New Balance will admit that they don't have a great duty shoe currently in their line. For your next purchase you may want to investigate Standing Comfort. It's the duty shoe line from Drew. Like their parent company, it provides shoes built on various last shapes and widths. They also have one of the best slip resistant soles in the industry.

An easier option is to go to Michael's (or any other arts/crafts retailer), and get EVA sheet stock. Most shops stock it in the 1/8" thickness that came in your Drews, and a 8"x11.5" sheet typically sells for a dollar or so. You might even get something similar from your local pedorthist or orthotist at no charge.

There are an awful lot of options available. Some are made specifically to accomidate orthotic wear; others woork reasonably well with little or no additional modification. The brands I work with most often include:

Aravon www.aravoneshoes.com

Bite www.biteshoe.com

Kumfs www.kumfs.com (note that since this is a New Zealand company, they currently have their most extensive selection, right now)

Drew www.drewshoe.com

Naot www.naot.com

Keep in mind that all of these brands provide styles that work well with their stock inserts. Birkenstock also has many styles which offer good support, although their selection of models with removeable inserts dwindles each year.

Enjoy your search, and let me know if you come across further questions.

Result number: 187

Message Number 218127

I guess we are back to cutting and pasting instead of linksView ThreadPosted by Dr. Ed on 12/28/06 at 13:00

A long cut and paste. It was just a short time ago when Scott or the moderator deleted a shorter cut and paste and did and demanded that I provide a link instead... oh well

Okay, lets look closely at this letter:

A letter to Jewish citizens of America

"During my recent book tour...a documentary about me and the work of The Carter Center. Demme reported that there was an equally large group of Jewish citizens demonstrating in support of the book and its call for a path to peace."

This represents one group of people at one venue. It is really irrelevant if the number of Jewish citizens demonstrating in support was equal to the number opposed at that particular place and time. What were the absolute numbers involved. If both groups were small as I suspect, it was an inacccurate sample size to guage opinion by scientific method.

"We first discussed the peace treaty I negotiated between Israel and Egypt in 1979, and the Holocaust Commission I announced on Israel's 30th birthday. Five of them had read my book completely and one partially, and I answered their questions about the text and title of PALESTINE PEACE NOT APARTHEID. I emphasized, as I had throughout the tour, that the book was about conditions and events in the Palestinian territories and not in Israel, where a democracy exists with all the freedoms we enjoy in our country and Israeli Jews and Arabs are legally guaranteed the same rights as citizens."

I am glad that he recognizes the conditions and Democracy in Israel. A major dilemna is that he conveniently forgets that the majority of Palestine is encompassed by Jordan. Remember the Black September issue in which Palestinian Arabs fought for control and autonomy in the territory controlled by the Hashemite minoirty government in Jordan. Why is this fact so conveniently ignored? Additonally he fails to state that the government of Israel only has limited control over what occurs in the territories where Palestinian Arabs live. The Palestinian Authority was provided a large measure of control by Israel at the demand of the US and Europe. It was the Palestinian people who rejected that control and voted in the radical Hamas instead which has continued to foment instability. The PA, in response to the polularity of Hamas, felt it necessary to prove to the Palestinian Arabs, that it too could carry on terrorism against Israel.

"We discussed the word "apartheid," which I defined as the forced segregation of two peoples living in the same land, with one of them dominating and persecuting the other."

Who is persecuting who? The so-called occupied territories were territories control by Egypt and Jordan before the 1967 War. The West Bank includes historical Judea and Samaria. I was surprised that Israel bowed to international pressure and did not annex those areas into Israel proper. That is a mjoar criticism that I have of the Israeli government. Did the Palestinian Arabs living in Gaza and the West Bank have more rights when Jordan and Egypt ran the areas. The answer is "no." Many Israelis moved to the West Bank and established settlements as they viewed that land as their home in the Holy Land both for historical and religious regions and because they had lost family members fighting the wars. The Jews living in the West Bank in no maneer practiced any form of policy of separation from the Arabs living there, It was their expectation that the Arabs living in the West Bank would have a stautus similar to that in the rest of Israel. It was the Arab leadershiop under Arafat that practiced spearation or "apartheid" if you will. There is no inherent prejudice of Arabs among Jews. There was and has been massive prejudice, blood libel and hatred preached against he jews by the Arab rulers including the PLO. Textbooks used in the Palestinian Arab classrooms, paid for by the US and the Europeans depict Israel as non-existant on the map and Jews as sub-humans. " I made clear in the book's text and in my response to the rabbis that the system of apartheid in Palestine is not based on racism but the desire of a minority of Israelis for Palestinian land and the resulting suppression of protests that involve violence."

What? What is wrong with the supression of violent protests and how does that lead to apartheid? What does he mean by a "desire of a minority of Israeli's for Palestinian land?" Exactly how does Carter decide waht land belongs to the Israelis and what land to the Palestinian Arabs? '"Bishop Tutu, Nelson Mandela, and prominent Israelis, including former attorney general Ben Yair, who served under both Labor and Likud prime ministers, have used and explained the appellation in harsher terms than I, pointing out that this cruel oppression is contrary to the tenets of the Jewish faith and the basic principles of the nation of Israel."

Bishop Tutu and Mandela can chose to be racists if they wish. I will not condone it but Carter can. Which prominent Israelis does he speak of? One can always find a group of people that support one's views. Cruel oppression? Exactly what or which cruel oppression is Carter speaking of?

"I made it clear that I have never claimed that American Jews control the news media..."

Gee thanks. , " factor, especially in the political arena, is the powerful influence of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which is exercising its legitimate goal of explaining the current policies of Israel's government and arousing maximum support in our country. There are no significant countervailing voices."

Okay. So Carter is concerned about the influence of the AIPAC. Why is he not concerned about the influence and why does he not mention the numerous Arab lobbying groups which have MUCH more money derived from Saudi oil money to influence American politics and media? Why does Carter conveniently fail to mention the millions of dollars that he, associates and the Carter Center have recieved from Arab interests?

"When asked my proposals for peace in the Middle East, I summarized by calling for Hamas members and all other Palestinians to renounce violence and adopt the same commitment made by the Arab nations in 2002: the full recognition of Israel's right to exist in peace within its legally recognized 1967 borders (to be modified by mutual agreement by land swaps)."

What? Hamas is a terrorist group organized for the purpose of committing terror. It charter calls for the annihilation of the State of Israel. Hamas is unlikely to renounce violence even if Jimmy Carter asks. When was a "committment made by the Arab states?" Mr. Carter needs to share this with the rest of us.

" An immediate step would be the resumption of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, now absent for six years. President Mahmoud Abbas is the official spokesman for the Palestinians, as head of the Palestinian National Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization, and has repeatedly called for peace talks. I asked the rabbis to join in an effort to induce the Israeli government to comply with this proposal."

One small problem. Carter calls Mahmoud Abbas the official spokesman for the Palestinians BUT the Palestinian Arabs do not regard him as such. Hamas won the election so Abbas is out. Yesterday, Prince Hassan of Jordan refused to meet with Abbas in deference to Hamas. Hmas will NOT negotiate with Israel.

"In addition, I pointed out that the Palestinian people were being deprived of the necessities of life by economic restrictions imposed on them by Israel and the United States because 42% had voted for Hamas candidates in the most recent election. Teachers, nurses, policemen, firemen, and other employees are not being paid, and the U.N. has reported that food supplies in Gaza are equivalent to those among the poorest families in sub-Sahara Africa with half the families surviving on one meal a day. My other request was that American Jewish citizens help to alleviate their plight."

It is not clear to me that it is up to Israel to foot the bill for hte Palestinians. Why do not the oil rich Arab nations send money? I thought that the other Arab countries were so concerned about the plight of the Palestinian people. Why do the oil rich Arabs provide money for Palestinian arms while refusing to pay for non-bleeigerant needs? Why does not Carter care about this fact and fail to mention this fact?????????????

"The chairman of the group, Rabbi Andrew Straus, then suggested that I make clear to all American Jews that my use of "apartheid" does not apply to circumstances within Israel, that I acknowledge the deep concern of Israelis about the threat of terrorism and other acts of violence from some Palestinians, and that the majority of Israelis sincerely want a peaceful existence with their neighbors. The purpose of this letter is to reiterate these points."

Some backtracking by Carter?

"We then held hands in a circle while one of the rabbis prayed, I autographed copies of my book as requested, and Chaplain (Colonel) Rabbi Bonnie Koppell gave me a prayer book."

Did they sing "Kumbaya?"

"I have spent a great deal of my adult life trying to bring peace to Israel, and my own prayer is that all of us who want to see Israelis enjoy permanent peace with their neighbors join in this common effort."

Right and because of your bias and hatred, many innocent Jews in Israel will not live to have an adult life: http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Terrorism-%20Obstacle%20to%20Peace/Memorial/2001/Shalhevet%20Tehiya%20Pass

Result number: 188

Message Number 218111

Jimmy Carter Issues Letter to Jewish Community on Palestine Peace Not ApartheidView ThreadPosted by marie on 12/28/06 at 11:22

http://www.cartercenter.org/news/pr/carter_letter_121506.html

A letter to Jewish citizens of America

During my recent book tour I signed more than 10,000 books and was interviewed on 100 news media outlets.* The high point for me was a meeting with leaders of the Board of Rabbis of Greater Phoenix, who announced before my arrival that they would demonstrate against my book. When they invited me to meet with them, I accepted immediately. The six rabbis (three men and three women) and I were the only ones present except for a camera crew under the direction of Jonathan Demme, who was making a documentary about me and the work of The Carter Center. Demme reported that there was an equally large group of Jewish citizens demonstrating in support of the book and its call for a path to peace.

We first discussed the peace treaty I negotiated between Israel and Egypt in 1979, and the Holocaust Commission I announced on Israel's 30th birthday. Five of them had read my book completely and one partially, and I answered their questions about the text and title of PALESTINE PEACE NOT APARTHEID. I emphasized, as I had throughout the tour, that the book was about conditions and events in the Palestinian territories and not in Israel, where a democracy exists with all the freedoms we enjoy in our country and Israeli Jews and Arabs are legally guaranteed the same rights as citizens.

We discussed the word "apartheid," which I defined as the forced segregation of two peoples living in the same land, with one of them dominating and persecuting the other. I made clear in the book's text and in my response to the rabbis that the system of apartheid in Palestine is not based on racism but the desire of a minority of Israelis for Palestinian land and the resulting suppression of protests that involve violence. Bishop Tutu, Nelson Mandela, and prominent Israelis, including former attorney general Ben Yair, who served under both Labor and Likud prime ministers, have used and explained the appellation in harsher terms than I, pointing out that this cruel oppression is contrary to the tenets of the Jewish faith and the basic principles of the nation of Israel.

Having traveled throughout the Holy Land during the past 33 years, especially within the occupied areas, I was qualified to describe the situation from my own personal observations. In addition, The Carter Center has monitored the Palestinian elections of 1996, 2005, and 2006, which required a thorough and intimate involvement with Palestinian citizens, candidates, public officials, and also the top political leaders of Israel who controlled checkpoints throughout the West Bank and Gaza and all facets of the elections in East Jerusalem.

I made it clear that I have never claimed that American Jews control the news media, but reiterated that the overwhelming bias for Israel comes from among Christians like me who have been taught since childhood to honor and protect God's chosen people from among whom came our own savior, Jesus Christ. An additional factor, especially in the political arena, is the powerful influence of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which is exercising its legitimate goal of explaining the current policies of Israel's government and arousing maximum support in our country. There are no significant countervailing voices.

I am familiar with the extreme acts of violence that have been perpetrated against innocent civilians, and understand the fear among many Israelis that threats against their safety and even their existence as a nation still exist. I reiterated my strong condemnation of any such acts of terrorism.

When asked my proposals for peace in the Middle East, I summarized by calling for Hamas members and all other Palestinians to renounce violence and adopt the same commitment made by the Arab nations in 2002: the full recognition of Israel's right to exist in peace within its legally recognized 1967 borders (to be modified by mutual agreement by land swaps). This would comply with U.N. Resolutions, the official policy of the United States, commitments made at Camp David in 1978 and in Oslo in 1993, and the premises of the International Quartet's "Roadmap for Peace." An immediate step would be the resumption of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, now absent for six years. President Mahmoud Abbas is the official spokesman for the Palestinians, as head of the Palestinian National Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization, and has repeatedly called for peace talks. I asked the rabbis to join in an effort to induce the Israeli government to comply with this proposal.

In addition, I pointed out that the Palestinian people were being deprived of the necessities of life by economic restrictions imposed on them by Israel and the United States because 42% had voted for Hamas candidates in the most recent election. Teachers, nurses, policemen, firemen, and other employees are not being paid, and the U.N. has reported that food supplies in Gaza are equivalent to those among the poorest families in sub-Sahara Africa with half the families surviving on one meal a day. My other request was that American Jewish citizens help to alleviate their plight.

The chairman of the group, Rabbi Andrew Straus, then suggested that I make clear to all American Jews that my use of "apartheid" does not apply to circumstances within Israel, that I acknowledge the deep concern of Israelis about the threat of terrorism and other acts of violence from some Palestinians, and that the majority of Israelis sincerely want a peaceful existence with their neighbors. The purpose of this letter is to reiterate these points.

We then held hands in a circle while one of the rabbis prayed, I autographed copies of my book as requested, and Chaplain (Colonel) Rabbi Bonnie Koppell gave me a prayer book.

I have spent a great deal of my adult life trying to bring peace to Israel, and my own prayer is that all of us who want to see Israelis enjoy permanent peace with their neighbors join in this common effort.

Sincerely,

Jimmy Carter

Result number: 189

Message Number 218110

Jimmy Carter Issues Letter to Jewish Community on Palestine Peace Not ApartheidView ThreadPosted by marie on 12/28/06 at 11:22

http://www.cartercenter.org/news/pr/carter_letter_121506.html

A letter to Jewish citizens of America

During my recent book tour I signed more than 10,000 books and was interviewed on 100 news media outlets.* The high point for me was a meeting with leaders of the Board of Rabbis of Greater Phoenix, who announced before my arrival that they would demonstrate against my book. When they invited me to meet with them, I accepted immediately. The six rabbis (three men and three women) and I were the only ones present except for a camera crew under the direction of Jonathan Demme, who was making a documentary about me and the work of The Carter Center. Demme reported that there was an equally large group of Jewish citizens demonstrating in support of the book and its call for a path to peace.

We first discussed the peace treaty I negotiated between Israel and Egypt in 1979, and the Holocaust Commission I announced on Israel's 30th birthday. Five of them had read my book completely and one partially, and I answered their questions about the text and title of PALESTINE PEACE NOT APARTHEID. I emphasized, as I had throughout the tour, that the book was about conditions and events in the Palestinian territories and not in Israel, where a democracy exists with all the freedoms we enjoy in our country and Israeli Jews and Arabs are legally guaranteed the same rights as citizens.

We discussed the word "apartheid," which I defined as the forced segregation of two peoples living in the same land, with one of them dominating and persecuting the other. I made clear in the book's text and in my response to the rabbis that the system of apartheid in Palestine is not based on racism but the desire of a minority of Israelis for Palestinian land and the resulting suppression of protests that involve violence. Bishop Tutu, Nelson Mandela, and prominent Israelis, including former attorney general Ben Yair, who served under both Labor and Likud prime ministers, have used and explained the appellation in harsher terms than I, pointing out that this cruel oppression is contrary to the tenets of the Jewish faith and the basic principles of the nation of Israel.

Having traveled throughout the Holy Land during the past 33 years, especially within the occupied areas, I was qualified to describe the situation from my own personal observations. In addition, The Carter Center has monitored the Palestinian elections of 1996, 2005, and 2006, which required a thorough and intimate involvement with Palestinian citizens, candidates, public officials, and also the top political leaders of Israel who controlled checkpoints throughout the West Bank and Gaza and all facets of the elections in East Jerusalem.

I made it clear that I have never claimed that American Jews control the news media, but reiterated that the overwhelming bias for Israel comes from among Christians like me who have been taught since childhood to honor and protect God's chosen people from among whom came our own savior, Jesus Christ. An additional factor, especially in the political arena, is the powerful influence of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which is exercising its legitimate goal of explaining the current policies of Israel's government and arousing maximum support in our country. There are no significant countervailing voices.

I am familiar with the extreme acts of violence that have been perpetrated against innocent civilians, and understand the fear among many Israelis that threats against their safety and even their existence as a nation still exist. I reiterated my strong condemnation of any such acts of terrorism.

When asked my proposals for peace in the Middle East, I summarized by calling for Hamas members and all other Palestinians to renounce violence and adopt the same commitment made by the Arab nations in 2002: the full recognition of Israel's right to exist in peace within its legally recognized 1967 borders (to be modified by mutual agreement by land swaps). This would comply with U.N. Resolutions, the official policy of the United States, commitments made at Camp David in 1978 and in Oslo in 1993, and the premises of the International Quartet's "Roadmap for Peace." An immediate step would be the resumption of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, now absent for six years. President Mahmoud Abbas is the official spokesman for the Palestinians, as head of the Palestinian National Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization, and has repeatedly called for peace talks. I asked the rabbis to join in an effort to induce the Israeli government to comply with this proposal.

In addition, I pointed out that the Palestinian people were being deprived of the necessities of life by economic restrictions imposed on them by Israel and the United States because 42% had voted for Hamas candidates in the most recent election. Teachers, nurses, policemen, firemen, and other employees are not being paid, and the U.N. has reported that food supplies in Gaza are equivalent to those among the poorest families in sub-Sahara Africa with half the families surviving on one meal a day. My other request was that American Jewish citizens help to alleviate their plight.

The chairman of the group, Rabbi Andrew Straus, then suggested that I make clear to all American Jews that my use of "apartheid" does not apply to circumstances within Israel, that I acknowledge the deep concern of Israelis about the threat of terrorism and other acts of violence from some Palestinians, and that the majority of Israelis sincerely want a peaceful existence with their neighbors. The purpose of this letter is to reiterate these points.

We then held hands in a circle while one of the rabbis prayed, I autographed copies of my book as requested, and Chaplain (Colonel) Rabbi Bonnie Koppell gave me a prayer book.

I have spent a great deal of my adult life trying to bring peace to Israel, and my own prayer is that all of us who want to see Israelis enjoy permanent peace with their neighbors join in this common effort.

Stretching to Stop Heel Pain A new kind of simple stretch can help banish the symptoms of plantar fasciitis, a painful condition that results from strain on the plantar fascia, the deep band of tissue that connects the heel bone to the toes. Other symptoms include weakness, inflammation and irritation that can make it difficult to walk. Plantar fasciitis is common in middle-aged and young people who spend a lot of time on their feet, and can take as long as ten months to resolve. The new stretch, described in the August 2006 issue of the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, was 75 percent successful in relieving pain, and helps gets people up and walking again within three to six months. Performing the new stretch daily was the only treatment needed by 75 percent of the 66 patients participating. To do the stretch, you sit with one leg crossed over the other and extend the arch of the foot by pulling the toes back toward the shin with your hand for a count of ten. Repeat the stretch 10 times per session on each foot, and do three stretching sessions per day.

Result number: 191

Message Number 217928

Re: Jimmy Carter... bought and paid for....View ThreadPosted by john h on 12/26/06 at 10:26

Nearly all attention in the Middle East focuses on the current situation. The current situation goes back thousands of years and more recently to the British Empire when whey drew a line in the sand and created nations such as Iraq with no thought to the political consequences. Same thing happened with India and Pakistan. The Vietnam War was the direct result of how Southeast Asia was split up after WWII with China, Russia, France and the U.S. seeking to protect their interest. We tend to blame current politicans for all these wars but the problems evolved from hundreds of years past. The real blame for many of these wars lays with politicians long dead.

just come across this thread and thought I'd start dipping in. I live in Melbourne, Oz, and had my cheilectomy on the 30th of November. Thought I'd give you details of my experience.I'm 37 yrs old and had moderate issues with my left big toe and seeing as I play a lot of soccer, I wanted to get it done before the season starts again in April.They basically fully knocked me out whilst they injected the nerves in my foot with a nerve blocker and I woke up 10-15 mins into the surgery with the surgeon doing his thing to my foot, and yes, I couldn't feel a thing, felt like someone was massaging my foot. The doc told me that he removed a bit of bone and a fair bit of 'Arthritis'.Total surgery time was about 40 mins and 1hr after that my wife brought me home.The next 3 days kind of disappeared as I was on Endone (more powerful than morphine apparently as I was told post-op that foot surgery is the most painful surgery you can have..yeah...great) and Panadeine Forte every 6 hrs, so yes, I was taking serious painkillers every 3 hrs. I was also on phenergan to counteract the feelings of nausea induced by the Endone, a laxative because Endone also blocks things up and I also took an antibiotic to ward off any infection. My wife, thankfully, drew up a timetable for me as I was away with the fairies most of the time and couldn't keep up.I was told to fully weight bare ASAP but probably wasn't able to for about a week and was successfully hobbling around by the time I went back to the docs 2 weeks later to have the bandages/stitches removed.

It wasn't a pretty sight, the 12 (rather large) stitches were done really tight because of where they were and the centre of it was a bit pussy and still is but is getting better. I was told to bathe my foot in a bucket of salty water to eat away the dead skin/clean the wound (500g to a bucket but I thought this a little excessive..) and I have been also rubbing paw paw ointment into the wound to get it to heal quicker. I then sleep without anything on it,only the paw-paw and after showering in the morning, put a band-aid on for the day.

Currently I am in a hard soled velcro shoe and have a custom made spacer between my big and second toe with a rather large band-aid which I change every day over my scar. I have some movement in my toe but not a great deal, maybe an inch ether way and can walk quite normally when wearing the shoe. If I try to walk normally without it I can feel pressure on the underside of my foot where some of the bone was removed. I guess this is to be expected.

It will be 3 weeks tomorrow since the surgery and I have been back to work 3 days now, but miss being on sick leave, I loved the time spent playing my guitar and watching the cricket.

The New England Patriots are my second favorite team! Drew Bledsoe went to college with my daughter and his family is from the town where I was born and his aunt and I have been aqaintences from the years I was an independent textile artist. Small world.Fantasy football looks intriguing. I have to make students exit the site at school (when they are supposed to be doing school work) but I always have them explain how they are doing before they do! Keeps us both happy.Looks like we'll be back in school tomorrow. 68 degrees seems blissful - hope your temperatures don't plummett too badly.Off to bed.Healing thoughts to all.

Result number: 194

Message Number 216197

Iran leader asking to be silencedView ThreadPosted by larrym on 11/27/06 at 11:11

So do we appease this idiot much longer?Ahmadinejad Predicts Collapse of Israel, U.S., U.K. (Update1)

By Ladane Nasseri and Marc Wolfensberger

Nov. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad predicted the collapse of Israel, the U.S. and Britain, attacking what he called their ``oppressive behavior.''

``The Zionist regime is on a steep downhill towards collapse and disgrace,'' Ahmandinejad told supporters at a rally of Basiji militia forces near Tehran today. In a reference to the U.S. and U.K., he said ``the collapse and crumbling of your devilish rule has started.'' The speech was carried live on state television.

Iran doesn't recognize Israel, and Ahmadinejad drew international condemnation after saying in October 2005 that Israel should be ``wiped off the map.'' The U.S. and Iran have had no diplomatic ties since 1980 following the seizure of diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979.

The U.K., which has an embassy in Tehran, is among the three European countries pushing for sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.

The Iranian president also called on neighboring countries to drive out ``foreign occupiers,'' in a reference to U.S.-led forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

``The people of the region are well able to establish regional security,'' the president said in the speech near the shrine of the Islamic Republic founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. ``The presence of foreigners is the source of discord and conflict.''

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, whose visit to Tehran yesterday was postponed because of the curfew imposed on Baghdad since Nov. 23, will fly to the Iranian capital tomorrow, state television reported separately today.

The Iraqi president's trip to Iran is aimed at ``expanding bilateral ties in business, trade and transport affairs,'' the report said. Iraq security will not be the main issue discussed in this meeting, the Iranian Foreign Ministry's press office said on Nov. 21.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ladane Nasseri through the London bureau at lnasseri at bloomberg.net Marc

Result number: 195

Message Number 215459

Re: question for Jeremy - New Broks ArielView ThreadPosted by Jeremy L on 11/12/06 at 08:30

Here's where the challenge lies. There are rare men's shoes in tta category which have any additional insert support at all, and many of those I consider moderately to fairly aggressive. Beyond that, many are also made of a firmer cork substrate tha used for casual women's shoes (mainly because of the average weight difference). Since you're doing well with Crocs and a house slipper, please choose wisely.

The best examples of contours most closely matching the shape of Crocs include:

Allen Edmunds Just phenominally well made shoes. The leather insole is designed to adapt to the wearer's foot; however, I find it worls better for those with higher arch types.

Finn Comfort/Birkenstock Footprints I'll loop these two together, since they are so similar in nature. Both use cork inserts which are not as aggressive as their purely orthopedic counterparts. They will shape a bit to the wearer, but it tends to do more of shaping the wearer.

Naot They place a layer of latex on top of their cork insert, so these tend to be far more tolerable for sensitive feet.

Things to keep in mind include ensuring that no matter what the insert type and shape is, the upper pattern of the shoe matches your personal foot shape. In addition, a shoe such as HS Trask and Dunham, and Drew (and some PG Lite and Propet), in the hands of a skilled and knowledgable fitter, can make a fairly simple adaptation of the stock insert to create the necessary contour.

Happy shopping!

Result number: 196

Message Number 214505

Re: ? for Jeremy about hiking bootsView ThreadPosted by Jeremy L on 10/29/06 at 13:53

It's difficult for me to make a direct recommendation without examining you, myself. But based on your decsription, I'm curious as to why neither of your new health professionals liked the Traveler. Unless they are still too broad for your feet. From Drew I would think that the Tracker is a better choice. Although built on the same last as the Traveler, it is what they term an "additional depth" shoe rather than a "double depth. This will let is fit just a little more snuggly, and reduce any internal torsion they may be trying to treat. It also uses a crepe sole which can be reliably modified to further reduce your metatarsalgia.

I'm not really a fan of either Merrell nor Keen for you, again based on your description. Both have narrow shanks, which will create pressure exactly where you describe. The truth is there are almost no hiking products built on a narrow, straight last. But there are good compromises out there, that may also improve with slight modification.

One consideration is the Lightweight from Limmer Boot. It has exactly the sole structure which should be effective for you. What's special about it is it's one piece, all-leather upper. It's design permits it to self modify to the wearer without breaking down in the counter. I also have difficult to fit, narrow feet (although a cavus structure, compared to your planus), and I have enjoyed my Limmers for 5 years now. Althought their Oxfors is one of the most perfectly crafted casual shoes I have ever come across, it will very likely fit far too wide for your needs.

http://www.limmerboot.com/Lightweight.html

Another option is Scarpa. They recently broke away from the parent company that all but decimated their long tradition of excellent build quality and durability. What they kept was their narrow last shape. Not all of their boots will be appropriate. First, seek the models which are built with a broader shanked, straight last. Second, ensure that what you're looking at is not a product made a couple years ago. Push at the extremities of the boot (toe and heel), and be certain that the midfoot shank is not breaking down. The SL, Delta, and Nepal are all favorites of mine.

http://www.scarpa.com/scarpa.php

Best of luck to you.

Result number: 197

Message Number 214458

? for Jeremy about hiking bootsView ThreadPosted by Bill K on 10/28/06 at 17:35

I now have a new podiatrist and pedorthist that I really like, but they didn't like my choice of footwear (Drew Travelers), so now the shoe hunt is on. My TTS symptoms have been gone for almost 3 months, only to be replaced by metatarsalgia in my right foot caused by lack of flexability in my calves and hamstrings. Started PT last Monday, not much help yet. I have very flexible narrow flat feet that collapse every time I take a step. They kinda get the ole pancake look. My Cped wants me to get a hiking boot with a fairly stiff sole that has good forefoot rockering. His first recommendation was Merrell, so I tried the Pulse 2 Mid, but they put pressure on the side of my feet on the medial side, down low right in front of my heels. He put in Langer PPT inserts but I can still feel it. His second choice for me is Keen, they are supposed to fit tighter in the heel while the midfoot is not so tight. I will go look this comming week sometime, so I would like your input too as to anything else to look at. thanks - Bill

I was sucessful. I wrote a long letter saying that I had tried everything before and nothing worked except this procedure. I enclosed the literature I had on the procedure at that time,and told them I would fight it to the end. They didn't pay the whole thing, but they did send me a chunk of it. Its been too many years to recall the amounts, but Dr. Zuckerman gave me some articles on the procedure. Its been at least 5 years since I had it done and I am still 95% cured as long as I wear my orthodics. Best of luck

Re: Question for Jeremy/Arch of Drew Shoes View ThreadPosted by Jeremy L on 10/23/06 at 10:09

The Blossom has a more aggressive arch fit than the Blazer does, mostly due to the last shape used in its construction. Although the Blazer has an extended medial portion of its plastic heel counter. So if the foot is allowed to roll uncontrolled in that direction, it can also cause discomfort.

An experienced shoe person could reshape the medial counter. Direct heat (as from a gun) is usually not advised, as the leather could easily be damaged. I have more success placing the shoe into a turkey bag, then in boiling water. I can then shape the softened plastic without damaging other parts of the shoe. For the Blossom it might be something as simple as applying a good leather conditioner in the necessary spot. Lexol is my favorite, since it doesn't break down the leather as severely as Neetsfoot oil does.

Hope you get improvement from them.

Result number: 200

Message Number 214035

Re: Question for Jeremy/Arch of Drew Shoes View ThreadPosted by Theresa on 10/22/06 at 19:10

I meant is there a way a professional shoe person could some how lower the arch?